The story of the Australian recordkeeping competency standards
| Published date | 01 December 2001 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000007272 |
| Date | 01 December 2001 |
| Pages | 143-153 |
| Author | Anne Picot |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
The story of the Australian
recordkeeping competency
standards
ANNE PICOT
Abstract
In July 2001 a comprehensive training package for business services successfully
jumped its first hurdle on the way to endorsement when the Australian National
Training Authority passed it onto the National Quality Training Council for
quality checking. The Business Services Training Package includes a revised set
of recordkeeping competency units based on the 1997 Records and Archives
Competency Standards. The revised standards have been packaged into recom-
mended qualifications which embrace both specialist recordkeeping qualifica-
tions and general business services qualifications. The training package may be
used to construct training programs through a range of levels, from school-
leavers entering the workforce to do office work, through to professional devel-
opment programs for experienced recordkeeping professionals. The process of
re-organising the 1997 competency standards into training packages has been a
subject of controversy in the industry. This article provides an account of the
original project to develop records management and archives competency stan-
dards and the subsequent revision project in the context of major changes in the
tertiary education sector in Australia.
Introduction
Back in 1994 a small group of people from the records management and
archival profession1met with a union official from the Australian
Services Union (ASU) and a representative from the Australian National
Training Authority2to discuss how to develop national competency
standards for the records management industry. From this first meeting
the National Records and Archives Competency Standards Project
Steering Committee was formed – consisting of representatives from the
Records Management Association of Australia, the Council of Archives,
the Australian Society of Archivists, the Health Information Management
Records Management Journal, vol. 11, no. 3, December 2001, pp. 143–153
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