To develop a national team of trained personnel who are competent to perform their duties in any jurisdiction. After extensive consultation the competency standards were delivered in 1999 and a National Training Coordinator appointed to implement them. Competency Based Training is aimed at gaining a competency - for our purposes, competency in aspects of emergency animal disease preparedness. Competency Based Training is not new. Most university and college courses traditionally used this form of training and assessment for practical work, eg identifying bacteria and parasites, veterinary surgery, using agricultural machines etc.
Candidates have to demonstrate their ability to perform a given task to be deemed competent.
Competency based training and assessment is now commonly used in university, TAFE, industry and defence force training and is intended to prepare candidates for specific tasks or job position. The Emergency Animal Disease Training Steering Committee then decide how the policies can be put into practice. In 1999 the Coordination Group decided that the highest priorities for assessment and training were for the Control Centre Controller and Site Supervisor positions. Candidates from the Commonwealth, all States and Territories gained competencies in Workplace Assessment in 1999 and the process of assessing candidates against the competencies for the two positions has now commenced. Where deficiencies in existing competencies have been identified, training courses have commenced to address the gaps.