2020 Draft IT Qualifications
It was only a year ago that we were talking about the new IT qualifications.
My internal email to staff started ... "the worlds gone crazy" but the changes are mostly for the positive - but are another major change in this field in a short time.
We have ALREADY made changes to the programs of existing students and future enrolments to minimise the impact of when the recommended changes are implemented.
In December PWC Skills for Australia released the draft training products for the Getting a Job in IT and Getting a Specialised Job in IT projects in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Training Package.
The draft 2020 changes include:
Certificate II in IT
The Recommendations are that Certificate II in IT will be deleted. The alternative will be to use Certificate II in Business or Certificate III in Business (noting these will be the newer ones discussed in this article).
This will have most impact on school based VET courses and School-based Traineeships.
It will limit the IT training at that level to applications type subjects eg word processing and spreadsheets.
Certificate III in IT
The draft new Certificate 3 in IT looks nothing like the current one.
It has 6 entirely new core units. Three of the 6 reflecting more a business general skills theme vs IT specific skills):
- BSBCRT301 Develop and extend critical and creative thinking skills
- BSBXCS303 Securely manage personally identifiable information and workplace information
- BSBXTW301 Work in a team
The remaining 3 are new core units with one making Programming skills now a core:
- ICTICT442 Apply IP, ethics and privacy policies in an ICT environment
- ICTPRG302 Apply introductory programming techniques
- ICTSAS432/ ICTSAS410 Identify and resolve client ICT problems
On a positive note - the qualification is planned to be only 12 units (vs 17)
The 6 electives do allow a lot of flexibility which is great. They include the networking subjects we mostly deliver now in the current qualification.
In summary - a positive move to make the qualification more realistic in size and with flexibility.
The challenge - those doing ICT30118 will not be able to easily transition to the new qualification.
To prevent students (especially those scheduled to take 2 years) from doing work that is going to be out of date and redundant - we have:
- changed the units we offer to best match the draft new qualification
- reordered subjects in students courses to leave the possibly redundant ones at the end of courses. This means if students do not complete before they must transition to the new qualification - they haven't wasted effort OR will have enough time before transition to complete the current qualification.
Trainees and supervisors will be notified of these changes to Training Plans and given an explanation to the reasons we have done this.
Certificate IV In IT
All versions of Certificate IV in IT are merged into one qualification that allows specialisations.
The qualification applies to specialist ICT skills areas in:
- front and back end web development
- programming
- gaming development
- database development
- database maintenance
- networking
- systems administration support.
The draft new 6 core units are:
- BSBCRT404 Apply advanced critical thinking to work processes
- BSBXCS404 Contribute to cyber security risk management
- BSBXTW301 Work in a team
- ICTICT426 Identify and evaluate emerging technologies and practices
- ICTICT442 Apply IP, ethics and privacy policies in an ICT environment
- ICTSAS432/ ICTSAS410 Identify and resolve client ICT problems
14 electives are needed and include the networking and system admin support options we currently offer.
However - the changes to the qualification are quite significant and a full rewrite of existing programs would be required. As a result, at this stage, the College does NOT intend to offer the Certificate IV qualification in the future.
This means we are NOT accepting new enrolments in the current qualification (as the likelihood of students finishing in time is low).
Current students are being advised that once the new qualifications come into place they will have the option to:
- complete by the teach out date (estimated August 2021)
- transfer to another RTO who can offer them the new qualification once it comes in
If the College position on Certificate IV in IT changes we will update this page.
Feedback to PWC Skills Australia
The period to give feedback on the drafts is until 14 February 2020 (Happy Valentines day).
Access the material and instructions to give feedback at their website.