New IT Quals and EduLab Practice Environment
New IT Qualifications Now Live
The latest IT qualifications are now approved for delivery:
ICT30120 Certificate III in Information Technology and
ICT40120 Certificate IV in Information Technology
and will shortly be available on WebclassM for new students and transitioning students.
Major Changes
The most significant changes have occurred in Certificate IV - with specialist qualifications now being choices under the new ICT40120 qualification.
This has impacted the core (compulsory) units and elective options.
As part of the consultation process with PWC Skills for Australia - ACCM has represented your views on the planned changes and also kept up to date on the qualification direction and the draft units.
Having spent weeks of work reviewing and providing input to PWC Skills for Australia drafts, the dividends will now pay off with us having spent the past 3 months updating IT course content in preparation of the anticipated changes.
In addition we have undertaken a major review and asked key stakeholders for their views on the learning content volume, assessment processes and also the areas where content should be updated. Thank you to the many of you who engaged with us on this important consultation activity.
As a result we will be able to quickly implement the final approved training products with updates that students and employers will appreciate. We are just in the final stages of checking that the last drafts we used in our development process became the final approved training products.
Javascript for Programming
Both the Certificate III and the Certificate IV qualifications have ICTPRG302 Apply introductory programming techniques as a core unit.
This is the first time that programming has been compulsory as subject content, and while we recognise that over half of you felt this was not appropriate, never-the-less the Skills Council has approved this.
To this end we have consulted extensively on the best way that your staff can get value out of programming skills.
As a result we have chosen to use a standard language - Javascript - as the basis for our programming subjects.
In this subject students will learn the underlying basis of programming in a way that teaches the concepts that apply to most modern languages.
Edulab Cloud-based Computer Labs Perfect for Assessment Conditions
In another exciting step forward with IT qualifications - we now have in place the EduLAB virtual computer lab environments.
In Edulab students have access to controlled IT lab environments in which to conduct assessment activities. This removes the need for most activities to be done on your production environment.
Edulab will let students access the lab environments from any of their favourite devices (MacBook, PC and Chromebook). It gives the same lab experience in our online delivery as it would in a face-to-face delivery format that has a lab.
ACCM is directly paying for the lab - and so there are no additional costs to students or employers.
Software and Operating Systems
Although we recognise Windows 11 is here - industry consensus is that Windows 10 and Server 2019 will remain to be the dominant options in the coming year. As such we will delay plans to move to the newer variation until 2022 and after further industry consultation.