Standard 10.5 – Australian Qualifications Framework levels

This Standard relates to Section B: 4.1 of the National course document template.

Australian Qualifications Framework levels

The Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) is the national policy for qualifications in the Australian education and training system. It provides a framework of ‘AQF levels’, which contain one or more qualification type. For example, AQF level 1 contains only the Certificate I qualification type, while AQF level 8 contains both the Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma qualification types.

The following AQF qualification types are recognised in the VET sector:

• Certificate I
• Certificate II
• Certificate III
• Certificate IV
• Diploma
• Advanced Diploma
• Graduate Certificate
• Graduate Diploma.

Note: A ‘Course in’ does not have an assigned AQF level. See Table 8 below.

The AQF describes what a graduate is expected to know, understand and be able to do as a result of completing their qualification. This is expressed in terms of the knowledge, skills, and the application of knowledge and skills required by a graduate, underpinned by the volume of learning required for the AQF level.

It is important to ensure that your proposed accredited course aligns to the nominated AQF level. To do this you will need to compare the complexity and depth of knowledge, skills, application of knowledge and skills and volume of learning to be covered in your course with the criteria outlined in each AQF level and qualification type descriptor. Details of the requirements for each level can be found on the AQF website.

The National course document template (Section B: 4.1 ‘Qualification level’) requires you to explain how your course meets the AQF level criteria and the qualification type descriptor for the nominated qualification type.

This information should be presented as per Table 6.

Table 6: Criteria for each Australian Qualifications Framework level and qualification type

Volume of learning

You will also need to describe the volume of learning for the course in the ‘packaging rules’ component of the National course document template (Section B: 5.1 ‘Course structure’).

The AQF defines volume of learning as a ‘dimension of complexity of a qualification’. It is used, along with the AQF level criteria and qualification type descriptor, to determine the depth and breadth of a qualification’s learning outcomes.

The volume of learning indicates the notional duration of all the activities needed to achieve the learning outcomes for a particular qualification type. It includes all teaching and learning activities such as guided learning (classes, lectures, tutorials, online or self-paced study), individual study, research, learning activities in the workplace, and assessment activities.

The AQF expresses learning in terms of full-time years. Table 7 shows this converted to hours.

The AQF provides a guide to the volume of learning which describes how long a student who does not hold any of the competencies identified in the relevant units of competency would take to develop all the required skills and knowledge.

Training providers need to apply the appropriate AQF volume of learning to programs they deliver and should develop and implement strategies for training and assessment consistent with the AQF.

You can calculate the volume of learning as follows:

Nominal (supervised) hours + unsupervised hours = volume of learning

Nominal (supervised) hours represent the supervised structured learning and assessment activities required to sufficiently address the content of each unit (acknowledging that progress can vary between students) These activities can be delivered face-to-face, online and/or through structured distance education.

Unsupervised hours represent activities that contribute to achieving the course outcomes but are not supervised by a provider’s trainer or assessor. This may include non-supervised work experience, field placement, private study and/or assignment work.

Table 7: Conversion of Australian Qualifications Framework volume of learning to hours

Meeting the volume of learning requirements

In order to demonstrate that a proposed course meets the appropriate volume of learning for the nominated qualification type, you will need to determine the nominal (supervised) and unsupervised hours.

How to calculate nominal (supervised) hours

• For training package units of competency:

If you have included units from training packages in the course structure, the nominal hours for each unit should align to those specified in the Victorian Purchasing Guides (VPG). ASQA uses these as a guide because the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) uses these hours for reporting purposes.

• For enterprise units of competency:

You will need to determine the nominal hours to be assigned to each unit. These hours should accurately indicate the duration of supervised structured learning and assessment activities required to cover the unit’s content (acknowledging that progress can vary between students). These activities can be delivered face-to-face, online and/or via structured distance education.

• For courses that have electives and/or elective groups:

Where your course allows students to choose from a list of electives, you should specify the total nominal (supervised) hours for the course as a range of hours based on the lowest and highest required hours.

How to calculate unsupervised hours

• For all units of competency:

Unsupervised hours are assigned to activities such as non-supervised work experience, field placement, private study and assignment work. Your course document should include an estimate of the approximate number of hours students will need to engage in unsupervised activities to complete the course. You do not need to detail unsupervised activities and hours for each unit of competency, but can include the total figure for the whole course.

Please note that ‘volume of learning’ has a different meaning to ‘amount of training’. The amount of training provided by a training provider is part of the overall volume of learning and relates primarily to formal activities, including classes as well as workplace learning. You can find further information about ‘amount of training’ in ASQA’s Users’ Guide to the Standards for Registered Training Organisations 2015.

A course developer is developing a Diploma of Stage and Screen Performance.

The course developer needs to determine the volume of learning for their proposed course, which includes training package and enterprise units of competency.

The nominal (supervised) hours for the existing training package units included in the course are sourced from the Victorian Purchasing Guides.

To determine the nominal (supervised) hours for the enterprise units of competency, the course developer calculates the hours of supervised training and assessment activities needed to achieve competency in each unit of competency.

For example, 112 nominal hours are allocated to NAT10914004 Devise works for screen based on the following breakdown:

• 60 hours of classroom based training and assessment
• 24 hours of online directed study classes
• 28 hours of practice (supervised by the provider trainer/assessor).

Each unit’s breakdown of hours, as provided in the example above, does not need to be listed in the course document.

The course owner documents the total nominal hours for each unit of competency in the packaging rules component of the course document using the table format suggested in the course document template.

Course owner’s documentation of total nominal hours is shown below.

The course developer calculates the unsupervised hours for the course will be made up of:

• 100 hours – independent research and learning
• 100 hours – projects and assignments
• 79 hours – observation of stage and screen productions.

However, they do not need to detail the number of required hours for each activity. They just need to provide the total number of unsupervised hours in the packaging rules section of the course document, as per below.

Course developer’s documentation of unsupervised hours

The course requires students to undertake unsupervised activity:

• independent research and learning
• projects and assignments
• observation of stage and screen productions.

The time required to undertake these activities will vary between students based on their experience.  On average, the non-supervised activities listed above will equate to 279 hours.

Using the formula: nominal (supervised) hours + unsupervised hours = volume of learning, the volume of learning for this course is 1217 hours, which aligns to that required for a Diploma qualification type (1200 – 2400 hours).

Note:  This case is modelled on the current accredited course 10914NAT Diploma of Stage and Screen Performance.  Permission for ASQA to use this information from the accredited course was provided by the course owner The National Institute of Dramatic Art.

‘Course in’ – VET accredited courses that do not align to an Australian Qualifications Framework qualification type

Where a course does not meet the requirements of an AQF qualification but does meet an identified need, a ‘Course in’ can be developed. The main differences between a VET accredited course that aligns to an AQF qualification type and a ‘Course in’ are shown in Table 8.

Table 8: Differences between AQF qualifications and ‘Course in’

Additional resources

• Standards for Training Packages 2023
• Australian Qualifications Framework, Second Edition, January 2013
• Victorian training package purchasing guides