VET News

The Foundation Skills Frameworks Are Under Review: ACER invites your input!

The Department has commissioned the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) to review the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) and the Digital Literacy Skills Framework (DLSF).

The purpose of the Foundation Skills Frameworks Review research project is to:

• Catalogue and report on the frameworks and tools used by the VET and ACE sectors to assess the language, literacy, numeracy, and digital literacy skills of learners.
• Review the frameworks to ensure they are meeting the needs of stakeholders and reflecting the real life performance of core skills across the three domains of personal and community, workplace and employment, and education and training.

The review will take place across three phase timelines:

• Phase 1: Discovery - December 2021 to February 2022
• Phase 2: Consultation - February to April 2022
• Phase 3: Consolidation and reporting - May to Jun 2022

The Phase 2 Consultation involves collecting stakeholder insights through an online survey which will be available from 11 March 2022.

What information will be gathered?

• Who uses the frameworks and examples of how they’re used
• How the frameworks are used in Commonwealth programs and other contexts
• Why some stakeholders are currently not using the frameworks
• What support is needed when using the frameworks and barriers to framework implementation
• Opportunities for strengthening the frameworks

So how can you be involved?

Online Survey: The survey will help the project team understand your views on a range of matters relating to the two frameworks, as well as assessment tools based on the ACSF. It will focus on how the frameworks are used and any changes that may be needed to the frameworks – or the tools that are used to support them – to ensure that they are fit for purpose.

The link to the survey will be available here from Friday 11 March

Discussion Forums: Stay informed and share your views about the frameworks review by attending one or both of the online discussion forums being held later in March. The forums are open to all practitioners and program managers who use the frameworks and/or tools in their various job roles.

• Forum 1:  17 March, 4 to 5pm AEDT: An information session on the project and its findings. An opportunity to ask questions about the project (live or via chat).
• Forum 2 : 31 March, 4 to 5pm AEDT: This forum provides an opportunity to expand on responses to the online survey and provide more specific feedback relating to the frameworks.

Register at FSFrameworks@acer.org to be kept informed of project progress and opportunities to participate in the forums.

Full Foundation Skills For Your Future Media Release.

Date posted Mar 10, 2022