Competency Based Assessment in Vocational Education and Training : Recent Investigations and Some Current Issues Using Different Research

Over recent years competency-based training and assessment have gained the attention of teachers and trainers. National competency standards for the teaching profession were the focus of an Australian Teacher Education symposium at which Leo Bartlett and Glen Evans were main contributors (Cairns, 1992). Later, the Australian College of Education published a collection of articles on the competency debate in Australian education and training (Collins, 1993). The most recent issue of The Australian Educational Researcher, a publication of the Australian Association for Research in Education, contains a discussion on the application of national standards for beginning teachers to initial teacher education (Preston & Kennedy, 1995). As the authors state the "development and application of competency standards in Australia have their recent origins in attempts to solve particular economic, industrial relations, labour market, and vocational education and training problems" (p.28). It is to competency-based training and assessment in vocational education and training that we now turn.