PA55 Down Training Packages Training Packages: The learning journey to date

This paper/presentation reports on a commissioned strategic evaluation undertaken for the Australian National Training Authority on the qualitative impact of the introduction of Training Packages on vocational education and training clients. The research involved collecting the views of over 200 vocational education and training practitioners, bureaucrats, industry personnel and students from all Australian States and Territories. The data collected provides a snapshot of conflicting views about Training Packages. An activity theory approach was used to analyse the data. This resulted in the identification of key contextual issues which act against the adoption of Training Packages and their innovative use by VET practitioners. These issues are systemic in nature and provide an explanation for the polarity of views which, inevitably, result from any discussion of Training Packages. It is less than six years since the move to Training Packages as the national specification of vocational education and training (VET) in Australia and less than five years since the first Training Packages were endorsed. Since then, VET providers, administrators, and industry have been on a steep learning curve as they unpack the packages to determine what they mea