About this Assessment Guide
This guide is designed to help people in the Northern Territory children's services industry - especially assessees and assessors - to prepare for workplace assessment. If you are thinking about getting assessed (becoming an assessee) you may find the guide contains a lot of new information. If you would like to talk to someone about assessment, you are welcome to contact the Human Services Training Advisory Council on 08 8981 2550 or send an email.
How the guide is organised
Assessment information: contains information for assessors (people who assess others), assessees (people who are being assessed for a qualification) and other people in the workplace.
Assessment document examples: contains a sample unit of competency, together with examples of a completed assessment form and credentials awarded at the end of the assessment process.
Case studies: contains four case studies that describe Northern Territory children's services assessment scenarios.
What does that mean?: definitions for words and terms used throughout the guide.
Who the guide is for
Qualifications in children's services may be gained through training, through workplace assessment of existing skills, or through a combination of both.
This guide has been developed to assist people involved in workplace assessment in the Northern Territory children's services industry. These people are assessees, assessors and other children's services workplace personnel.
- Assessees are Northern Territory children's services industry workers who wish to be assessed against children's services competencies in the Community Services Training Package.
- Assessors are qualified assessors engaged by a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) to conduct assessments against children's services competencies in the Community Services Training Package.
- Workplace personnel are other people who may be involved in the assessment process. This may be as a co-worker or supervisor, as a technical expert on an assessment panel, or as a support person helping the assessee.
Why the guide has been developed
This guide has been funded by the Northern Territory Government to support the building of a qualified and committed children's services work force. It aims to improve understanding of and access to assessment and subsequent training.
The children's services industry
The children's services industry plays an essential role in our society, supporting children's development and socialisation, and supporting families as they work, train and participate in the community.
In the year 2002, an estimated 1300 people were working in the industry in the Northern Territory. Their roles include:
- supporting young children's physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual development
- planning environments and programs for children
- liaising with other professionals
- working with families
- providing child care for working families and parents needing a break
- providing a toy lending service
- supporting and licensing child care centres
- advocating for children
- developing public sector policy
- planning services for children.
Typical employment settings include child care centres in urban areas and remote Indigenous communities, family day care, outside school hours care, mobile services, toy libraries, playgroups, Three Year-Old Kindergardens and program support services.
More and more, the industry needs qualified people who can work flexibly with young children in a range of care and education services. This is due to a number of factors including:
- the rapid growth in centre-based, home-based and after-school care to meet the needs of the Territory's youthful population profile and to cater for changing work and social patterns
- the national and Territory focus on the quality of services for children, including community and government expectations about appropriately qualified people working with children
- the development of innovative new approaches to providing children's services, including those in remote Indigenous communities.
Why assessment is a practical option
Some people seek assessment when they want to enter the children's services industry workforce for the first time. Other people who are already in the children's services workforce seek assessment in order to develop their career paths. Assessment is often a practical option because:
- it provides a way of formally recognising skills gained from previous relevant experience, whether or not that experience has been in a paid role in a children's services industry workplace
- it can offer an alternative to off-the-job training as a means of achieving nationally recognised children's services qualifications
- it can be flexibly combined with training on or off the job.
Children's services qualifications
The Community Services Training Package contains six qualifications in children's services. They start from the lowest level of Certificate II and continue to the highest level of Advanced Diploma.
The units of competency in these qualifications are included in this guide and are accessed by using the left hand menu on each page.