Commissioners Information Bulletin 168
Issued: 11 September 2001

Interim Registration for the Community Services Traineeships in Community Work & Community Housing Work

At the request of the NSW Community Services and Health Industry Training Advisory Body, the Department of Education and Training has agreed to the interim registration of traineeships in: Community Services (Community Work) Certificate III CHC 30699 and IV CHC 40699 and Community Services (Community Housing Work) Certificate III CHC 30599 and IV CHC 40599 pending approval of the Vocational Training Order. These qualifications form part of the Community Services Training Package Qualifications Framework. Interim registration will enable immediate implementation in NSW.

The Certificates III and IV in Community Services (Community Work) and Certificates III and IV in Community Services (Community Housing Work) are new traineeship qualifications.

Nominal Term

• Certificate III in Community Services Work(Community Work) CHC 30699 - 12 months
• Certificate IV in Community Services Work(Community Work) CHC 40699 - 24 months
• Certificate III in Community Services Work(Community Housing Work) CHC 30599 - 12 months
• Certificate IV in Community Services Work(Community Housing Work) CHC 40599 - 24 months

Qualification Structure
All four qualifications have community services common units that are packaged with specialisation and optional units to enable the achievement of occupational outcomes. The common units will be contextualised to meet the requirements of particular work functions.

Where enterprise units are included as options within the qualification, these will need to be submitted to Community Services and Health Training Australia for referral to the National Training Quality Council for endorsement. If enterprise units are included as additional units over and above the packaging requirements, endorsement is not required.

Community Work
The competency standards have been packaged to meet the varying needs of community workers – namely:

• those who act deliberately to ensure that the social and community fabric exists and is accessible to individuals or groups in the community (either a geographic community or a community of interests)

Community workers include:

• coordinators of neighbourhood houses and community centres
• Aboriginal field workers
• information officers in citizens’ Advice Bureau and community resource centres
• community advocates
• community education officers
• women’s centre and group officers
• ethnic community grant-in-aid workers
• community liaison officers
• employment/enterprise skills coordinators
• family support workers
• rural support workers
• local council community development workers
• community health workers
• environmental advocacy workers
• international aid agency workers
• people who work in the peak agencies representing community services and health

Community Housing Work
The competency standards have been packaged to meet the needs of workers whose primary role relates to provision of community managed not-for-profit housing, related housing advice/advocacy services and/or research and policy activities. This work occurs in a range of environments, eg with consumers in housing need, non-English-speaking background services, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and urban, rural and remote communities.

Community housing workers include those working in:

• housing management organisations including: housing associations, cooperatives and head leasing schemes
• housing information, advice and advocacy service, including tenant’s unions, tenancy advice services, housing resource services
• generalist community services agencies with some responsibility for property or tenancy management, including Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) funded services and indigenous community organisations

The competency standards have been packaged to meet the varying needs of community housing workers - namely:

• those who provide some community housing services as part of their role. Units may be undertaken as single units and/or or incorporated into other qualifications
• those who work primarily providing specialist property/tenancy management services. A whole package of units will be undertaken resulting in a Community Housing qualification

The packaging and combination of the minimum number of units drawn from the relevant competency standards and required for each qualification are outlined at Attachment A.

Support materials
Curricula to support delivery of the Certificates III and IV in Community Services (Community Work) qualifications can be accessed through the NSW DET Curriculum Clearinghouse and the Community Services ITAB website. NSW DET has allocated funding for the development of curricula for the Community Housing qualifications. Development has been assigned to TAFE with completion expected in time for the commencement of semester 2, 2002. Training Record books to support all four traineeship categories have been listed on the ITAB Curriculum Priority Funding Submission 2001 - 2002.

Industrial arrangements
Industrial arrangements are in place through:

Community work sector
The Social and Community Services Employee (State) Award. This award includes part-time as well as school-based provisions.

Community housing sector
The Community Services Employee (State) Award. This award includes part-time as well as school-based provisions.

Licensing
There are no licensing requirements for either sector.

For any enquiries regarding this CIB, please contact the Vocational Training Tribunal Unit on (02) 9266 8579.

PAM CHRISTIE
Commissioner of Vocational Training