Review of the Australian Core Skills Framework and Digital Literacy Skills Framework and relevant assessment tools: final report

This is the final report of a project commissioned in 2020 by the then Department of Education, Skills and Employment to review the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) and Digital Literacy Skills Framework (DLSF) and tools available to support assessment using these frameworks. The review explored the development and history of the ACSF and DLSF, their use and application in the Australian context and examined features of selected international adult skills frameworks and curriculum.

Through this desktop research and range of consultation activities with stakeholders, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has investigated current use of the ACSF and DLSF and identified issues that indicate a need for framework reform or change. This report documents the findings from the review and proposes recommendations that will better position the frameworks to support agile responses to swiftly changing skill needs. The first main recommendation is to consider the Digital Capability Framework (when available) as a replacement for the DLSF. The second is to continue to maintain the ACSF as the pre-eminent Australian framework for language, literacy and numeracy (LLN).

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