What's happening to foundation skills?

Foundation skills, or core skills, are part of VET

One could be forgiven for thinking that foundation skills are disappearing from vocational education and training (VET) units of competency - depending on whose opinion you are reading.

The fact of the matter is that foundation skills aren't going anywhere.

For readers of our Skills Education email updates, you might recall our issue from July 8, 2025 that reminded us that the revised Training Package Organising Framework is now in effect (from 1 July 2025).

We then detailed the changes on the Skills Education website (11.7.25) and have copied below FYI.

The main takeaways are:

Foundation skills are not limited to just the five core skills in the ACSF and digital literacy

New qualification and skill set templates incorporate a 'spiky profile' type display of foundation skills in the training product

Foundation skills will be represented at the qualification level - as an exit outcome

Foundation skills may still be included at the unit of competency level, depending on the JSC

Foundation Skills

Under the new Training Package Organising Framework from 1.7.25

A new framework for VET qualifications

On 1 July 2025, a new framework came into effect for how qualifications are designed for the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector.

VET Qualification Reform has been a project over previous years and on 6 December 2024, Skills Ministers agreed to a new approach "guided by design principles" and meant to "improve quality, simplify course designs and reduce complexity."

Jobs and Skills Councils (JSCs), as industry-owned bodies, are responsible for the development of training package training products. And, as writers of the qualifications, skill sets, units of competency and accompanying Companion Volume Interpretation Guides, JSCs must use comprehensive workforce analysis, development of Job Profiles and mapping of career and education pathways to inform the content of the training package training products they produce.

Part of this is to identify what graduates must know and be able to achieve on successful completion of a qualification.

A new qualifications template is part of the updated 'Training Package Organising Framework (TPOF)'. 

The TPOF is a set of rules owned by Skills Ministers that dictates the development standards and endorsement process for training package products.

The TPOF sets out the product and process requirements that must be complied with for all national training package products and is a compilation of three documents:

1. Training Package Products Development and Endorsement Process Policy (TPPDEPP)

2. Training Package Products Policy (TPPP) 

3. The Standards for Training Packages 

(c) Skills Education 2025

Of note, under the TPOF there is a new template for:

• Qualifications

• Skill sets

• Credit arrangements

• Companion Volume Implementation Guides

  
  

And, a choice of unit of competency template:

1. Template for 'Application, Elements & Performance Criteria' (what we're used to seeing out of "streamlined training packages")

2. The other which is the 'Application of Skills and Knowledge' template (being referred to in the sector as the 'ASK' template)

Under these new rules, the shift is to a "qualification-first approach" under which JSCs can opt to either describe job functions and tasks, or describe the knowledge and skills outcomes obtained from training.

To this end, qualifications will now identify foundation skills as an overall outcome of the qualification, rather than at the level specific to the unit of competency.

JSCs must determine industry needs when developing their training products and while it is no longer a requirement for them to articulate foundation skills at a unit level, they may still choose to do so, especially where a unit is primarily delivered as a 'stand-alone' unit. First Aid and Responsible Service of Alcohol are examples of common 'stand-alone' units.

How will we see foundation skills under the new qualification design?

Principle 4 of the Qualification Development Quality Principles states:

• Qualifications include an appropriate mix of technical and broader skills, including foundation, cognitive, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills  (p.10 TPOF)

  
  

Foundation skills must be clearly identified and:

• Foundation skill requirements are clearly articulated within the Qualification or Skill Set template or where applicable, in the Unit of Competency 

• Guidance on Foundation Skills at the unit level is included in the Companion Volume Implementation Guide  (p.10 TPOF)

Standard 1.2 of the Standards for Training Packages states:

1.2 Training Packages – foundation skills 

1.2.1 Foundation skills must be explicit and recognisable within the training package 

1.2.2 Foundation skills in training packages must reflect, and not exceed, the foundation skills required in the workplace

1.2.3 Foundation skill requirements must be stated in the ‘Foundation Skills’ field in the qualification and/or Skill Set template. Where a specialisation stream, group of electives or a specific elective require a higher level of foundation skills, this must be explicitly stated  (p.14 TPOF)

Per the new qualification template, JSCs are required to adhere to the following mandatory component (p.56 TPOF). (This is replicated in the new skill set template (p.61 TPOF))

Except from the new qualification template, showing how foundation skills must be represented

In the Companion Volumes:

Under 'Implementation information', it states: 

• "Foundation Skills including advice on the levels a learner is expected to have on successful completion of a qualification mapped to the Australian Core Skills Framework."  (p.59 TPOF)

In the 'Application, Elements & Performance Criteria' and 'Application of Skills and Knowledge' unit templates:

Foundation skills may be included as an optional field:

• Where a unit of competency is a standalone unit or has high delivery as a single unit (e.g. First Aid), Jobs and Skills Councils may use this field to describe foundation skills that are essential to performance. (p.52 and 54 TPOF)

Why does it only list ACSF core skills and digital literacy?

Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) have confirmed (emphasis added):

• "To improve consistency in the description of foundation skills, the revised TPOF requires training package developers to map qualification outcomes to the ACSF at a minimum. 

• This doesn't limit developers to using only the ACSF and they may use complementary frameworks as required.

JSCs will need to identify exact requirements for the training product through their consultation activities and by drawing on the educational expertise of VET practitioners during the public consultation process."  (- DEWR, 10.7.25)

What's the verdict?

So, "foundation skills" may be defined as the core skills in the ACSF plus any other foundational knowledge and skill from other frameworks that may be deemed as necessary outcomes of the qualification. 

While the qualification template only gives direction to map the five (5) core skills of the ACSF and include a descriptive statement about any digital literacy skills, it appears there is latitude for any other foundation skill to be included in the qualification if it is deemed a necessary requirement and outcome of the training product. 

This means we may still see items from the Core Skills for Work (CSfW) framework and/or Employability Skills listings. 

It is yet to be seen how JSCs will include those descriptors when and if required.

While the revised TPOF came into effect 1.7.25, updated qualifications are expected via a progressive rollout from the end of 2025, with changes dictated by the pace of industry updates required.

For more on the changes, see this DEWR fact sheet for RTOs: Training a future-ready workforce - DEWR Factsheet for RTOs_250610.pdf

- Skills Education, 11.7.25

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References:

VET Qualification Reform: A new approach to VET qualification design, DEWR, 30 June 2025

Updated Training Package Organising Framework commences 1 July 2025, DEWR, 2 July 2025

Training Package Organising Framework: Training Package Organising Framework.pdf

Other reading: 

Final Advice from the Qualification Reform Design Group, December 2024: Unlocking the potential of VET: Unlocking the potential of VET - QRDG Final Report December 2024.pdf

DEWR Fact Sheet about the changes in general: Supporting high quality training - DEWR Factsheet General_250610.pdf

DEWR Fact Sheet about the changes to qualification design: Raising the bar in qualification design - DEWR Factsheet_250610.pdf

DEWR Updated Training Package Assurance: Approach to Assurance v2.0_July2025.pdf

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