The primary reference document for your assessment tool will be the unit of competency. This doesn't mean that you can simply take the elements and performance criteria from the competency and put a column of tick boxes beside them.

As we discussed in Section 2, competencies are written in generic terms so that they can be applied to workplaces throughout the industry, wherever that task is carried out.

Therefore, the main purpose of the competency is to provide a framework for the scope of your assessment tool and the details it must cover.

Below is a summary of the main parts you should pay attention to when you're developing the tool. Note that this structure follows the new streamlined model - older competencies will have a slightly different layout.

1. Elements and performance criteria

This is the nuts and bolts of the task, so you must cover everything listed. Remember that you can 'contextualise' the competency to suit the specific needs of your workplace, but you should not remove any of the requirements specified in the elements or performance criteria, or narrow the outcomes of the competency. See below for more information on how to contextualise a competency.

2. Range of conditions

This is where you will find the range of variables that apply to the unit. It is the part that you are most likely to refer to as you contextualise the competency to meet your own workplace's needs.

3. Assessment requirements

In the downloadable PDF or Word versions of competencies, the 'Assessment requirements' are provided in a separate document from the elements and performance criteria for that unit. However, in the on-line versions on the 'Training.gov.au' website, the Assessment requirements are shown under a horizontal line that divides the two sections.

The subsections include:

• Performance evidence - which describes the skills that a candidate must demonstrate in order to be assessed as competent, and in many cases, specifies the number of demonstrations that must be performed
  
  
• Knowledge evidence - which describes the underpinning knowledge that a competent person should have
  
  
• Assessment conditions - which set out the accreditations that must be held by assessors, and any special conditions applying to the assessment process.

When you develop the practical demonstration checklists, written tests and other assessment instruments used to collect evidence of competence, you should cross-check your work against the 'Performance evidence' and 'Knowledge evidence' requirements as you go.

This will help you to make sure that all criteria are properly covered, especially in cases where a specific type of demonstration activity or a certain number of observations have been specified in the competency.

Contextualising the competency to suit your workplace

'Contextualising' a unit means putting the outcomes in the context of your workplace environment. It is not only permitted under the Standards for RTOs, it is strongly encouraged.

This is because the original competencies are written in a way that allows them to be used in the broadest range of environments where that skill is carried out. The language tends to be formal and generalised, so that it can be adapted by the assessor to different circumstances.

The trick to writing a good assessment tool is to take the concepts that are presented in the competency and re-write them in your own terms to suit your own learners, without losing any of the 'integrity' of the original specifications.

The sorts of changes you might make include:

• replacing general terms with the names of machines or specific workplace processes
  
  
• identifying particular types of evidence that the candidate should produce to satisfy the standards that apply in the workplace
  
  
• listing specific knowledge requirements that apply to that machine, process or workplace
  
  
• describing particular training and assessment strategies to suit learners with special needs
  
  
• using a reader-friendly style of language throughout the assessment tool, free from formal bureaucratic phrases

Training Package 'Implementation Guide'

All Training Packages have an Implementation Guide, which provides advice to trainers and RTOs about the structure of qualifications and their key features. The Implementation Guide also includes special conditions attached to certain competencies, such as licensing or regulatory requirements, or industry expectations of how the assessment is carried out.

For example, you may be able to use a 'simulated' workplace environment to assess some competencies, particularly when they deal with conceptual skills. But other competencies may require actual workplace conditions for their assessment, especially when they involve the operation of a machine. Much of this information is also shown in the individual competencies, under the subheading 'Assessment conditions'.