The Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) is the national policy for regulated qualifications in Australian education and training. In the 2017-18 budget, the Australian Government announced a review of the AQF, to be completed by mid-2019. The review will ensure that the AQF continues to meet the needs of students, employers, education providers and the wider community. The AQF was last thoroughly reviewed between 2009–2011. Since then there have been: technological advances in education delivery, increased uptake of sub-qualifications and changes to standard international practice related to qualifications frameworks. The department contracted PhillipsKPA to provide contextual research for the review, related to international qualifications frameworks and domestic use of the AQF.
This report is from the contextual research for the review. It describes the process and findings of the contextual research for the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). The purpose of this research is to provide contextual information to inform the 2018 Review of the AQF. It comprised: a comparison of the AQF against a selection of national qualifications frameworks from other countries; a consultation process and desk review of relevant documents and databases to research the breadth of the use of the AQF in both educational and non-educational settings in Australia. Structure of the report: The Executive Summary provides an overview of the main issues that stakeholders are asking to have addressed in the formal review and sets out issues for draft Terms of Reference for the review. Chapter 2 and Appendix 4 summarise national qualifications frameworks in Europe, South Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Pacific including New Zealand, Canada and Mexico (the USA has no national qualifications framework). The AQF is compared on the basis of a number of key parameters with common international practice. Chapter 3 and Appendices 1, 2 and 3 discuss the current uses of the AQF in educational and non-educational contexts in Australia and summarises the implications of these uses for any changes to the AQF. Chapter 4 summarises the feedback we received from stakeholders on broader general issues relating to their experience with the AQF. These issues include the purpose, scope, structure, and benefits of the AQF. Chapter 5 summarises the feedback received from stakeholders relating to detailed aspects of the AQF levels, their descriptors and their relationship with qualifications. These issues are organised according to the levels of the AQF (pre-tertiary and 1 to 10).
Edited excerpts from publication and the publisher's website.
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