Commissioners Information Bulletin 214
Issued: 15 July 2003

Establishment of a new recognised traineeship vocation of Health Services and the relevant Vocational Training Order

At the request of the NSW Community Services and Health Industry Training Advisory Body (ITAB), the Commissioner for Vocational Training has designated a new traineeship vocation in Health Services under section 5 of the Apprenticeship and Traineeship Act 2001 and has approved the relevant Vocational Training Order (VTO) under section 6 of the same Act.

This VTO highlights new qualifications from the Health Training Package, endorsed on 11 December 2001, by the National Training Quality Council. This aligns the traineeship structures to the Health competency standards and employment patterns within the industry.

Vocational Training Order Standard Format (VTO)
The VTO in each instance may make reference to:

1. the appropriate term or terms for apprenticeships or traineeships in that vocation
2. the appropriate probationary period or periods for apprenticeships or traineeships in that vocation, having regard to the term or terms specified for them under paragraph (a)
3. the appropriate qualification or qualifications that may be awarded in relation to an apprenticeship or traineeship in that vocation
4. any other training to be provided in addition to the training required for an appropriate qualification
5. such other matters relating to the training of apprentices or trainees in that vocation as the Commissioner considers appropriate.

A copy of the relevant revised VTO supporting the recognised traineeship vocation of Health is at Attachment A.

Overview of the Health Training Package HLT02
The Health Industry Training Package covers health service delivery workers in the full range of health industry settings. There are in excess of 200 occupational titles in the different areas of the health industry.

The training package is divided into the following sectors:

• Ambulance
• General Health Services Delivery
• Health Services Assistance
• Health Support Services
• Complementary and Alternative Health Care
• Dental Assisting
• Dental Technology and Dental Prosthetics

The size, diversity and complexity of the health industry has impacted upon the development and implementation of the Health Training Package, and the implementation of the training package requires special consideration of:

• health professional registration legislation
• consumer protection and health complaints legislation
• public health legislation, and
• common law principles

that are applicable in treating practitioner/patient relationships. It is essential that students have a sound understanding of the complex regulatory environment in which they will be working.

The training package has been constructed to ensure coverage of this essential component but the primary responsibility for these lies with the RTO and course assessor.

RTOs and assessors should ensure students have a sound understanding of the following medicolegal issues:

• Duty of care, consent and the principles of negligence
• Principles of contract
• Duty of confidentiality and privacy legislation
• Acceptance of limits of personal competence and the need for appropriate referral of clients to other health care practitioners
• Ethical practice issues, particularly inappropriate client relationships
• Limits of practice and boundary/licensing/registration issues with other practitioners and health professions
• Regulation of advertising and promotion of medial and health services under consumer protection legislation including the Trade Practices Act and State/Territory Fair Trading Acts – particularly the provisions relating to misleading and deceptive conduct and regulation of advertising and promotion of medial and health services
• Regulation of poisons and therapeutic goods
• Regulation of infection control and public health legislation
• Food standards and labelling regulations
• Complaints resolution and applicability of health complaints legislation
• Compliance, risk management and insurance
• GST compliance
• General business and corporate governance principles (as many students will be setting up a business and trading as such)

Skill requirements for workers in the health industry can be broadly defined in three categories:

• Workers in the health industry who access skill development and assessment from another industry area. Their qualifications would come from another training package and units of competency from Health Training Package relating to infection control and effective work in the health industry could be used as orientation/induction units
• Workers whose skills are mostly related to health services. Most units of competency required would be defined as health-specific and would be contained in the Health Training Package. These workers are specific to the health industry
• Workers who require a combination of health-specific competencies that would be added to competencies from another training package. Packaging for this group would include defined health specific units from the Health Training Package combined with units from another industry training package

Packaging rules for the Health Training Package
The training package has been designed to allow for:

• substantial flexibility
• the development of career paths; and
• an allowance for a broad range of specialities within the health industry

Qualifications comprise of units from particular groups in the Health Training Package or from other endorsed training packages. A qualification can be completed using a mix of compulsory and elective units. The selection of elective units allow enterprises to customise qualifications to match their specific workplace needs within identified boundaries.

The compulsory units reflect the work requirement in the range of settings covered by the qualification title. Elective units allow for variations and differences between areas, roles or functions in the health industry. These units are selected from a diverse range of areas and other training packages.

The number of units required to complete a qualification vary. However as several of these units occur consistently across the Health Training package qualifications, they may be considered fundamental to work in the health industry and are often compulsory, and include:

• Effective work in the health industry (duty of care, ethics, regulatory environment etc)
• infection control
• Occupational health and safety
• Other areas critical to a sector or type of work.

Other units within the qualification will define specific work areas, roles or functions in the health industry. These units can be elective or compulsory depending upon the work role, area or function.

Elective Units
Electives for General Health Services Delivery are grouped under four headings:

A table of units of competency with nominal alignment available as electives for General Health Services Delivery is at Attachment B.

Prerequisites
Any unit of competency requiring prerequisite assessment of another (non-compulsory) unit of competency will be identified within the packaging of the qualifications and in the evidence guide of the unit.

Relationship with other Training Packages
The Health Training Package has taken advantage of a significant number of units of competency developed in other training packages. Support services roles in the health industry are often substantially made up of these units, which include: Community Services, Business Services, Tourism and Hospitality, and Transport and Distribution, to take into account the possible career pathways which may exist between the health industry and other industries. The qualifications within the Health Training Package relate to health industry job roles as defined in validated qualification descriptors.

Note regarding Community Services Training Package CHC99
There may be an overlap between the occupational titles of some workers currently covered by the Community Services Training package and now covered by the Health Training Package (e.g. Patient Carer). The individual workplace requirements will define the competency profile and therefore determine the relevant qualification and units of competency to be applied. It should be noted that delivery of health services in a community setting does not equate to a community services worker and vice versa.

Note regarding Business Services Training Package BSB01
Business Services Training Package units of competency have been developed to apply across a number of industries. They are “very broad in nature; they gain in depth and meaning by being placed in the context of an actual business, or being applied in different industries” (Business Services Training Package Volume 1).

Note regarding Tourism and Hospitality Training Package
The role of a qualified cook across industries is reflected by the Certificate III in Hospitality (Commercial Cookery). This qualification is appropriate for implementation in the health industry when packaged with the following Health Training Package units:

• HLTHIR1A Work effectively in the health industry
• HLTIN1A Comply with infection control policies and procedures

Note regarding Transport and Distribution Training Package
A number of roles in the Health Training Package relate to store/supplies maintenance in specific environments such as a pharmacy department in a hospital at the Certificate II level. When career pathways lead to roles relating to general storage or warehousing at the Certificate III level Training Package users should access the Certificate III in Transport and Distribution (Warehousing). The following units of competency would be an appropriate elective for that qualification when implemented in a health care setting:

• HLTHIR1A Work effectively in the health industry
• HLTIN1A Comply with infection control policies and procedures

A total of 52 qualifications are available ranging from Certificates II, III, IV, Diploma and Advanced Diploma. Thirty-one of these will be available under traineeship arrangements in NSW.

The packaging and combination of the minimum number of units required for each revised qualification are outlined in Attachment C.

For the purpose of the revised VTO in NSW, trainees in the health industry will have the option of gaining the following qualifications:

• Certificate III in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health TAFE NSW Course Code 2094*
• Certificate II in Health Support Services (Cleaning Support Services) HLT20802
• Certificate II in Health Support Services (Laundry Support Services) HLT20302
• Certificate II in Health Support Services (Food Support Services) HLT20602
• Certificate II in Health Support Services (Grounds Maintenance) HLT20402
• Certificate II in Health Support Services (General Maintenance) HLT20502
• Certificate II in Health Support Services (Client/Patient Support Services) HLT20702
• Certificate II in Health Support Services (Stores) HLT20102
• Certificate II in Health Support Services (General Transport Support) HLT20202
• Certificate III in Health Support Services (Cleaning Support Services) HLT30902
• Certificate III in Health Support Services (Laundry Support Services) HLT30402
• Certificate III in Health Support Services (Grounds Maintenance) HLT30502
• Certificate III in Health Support Services (General Maintenance) HLT30602
• Certificate III in Health Support Services (Client/Patient Support Services) HLT30802
• Certificate III in Health Support Services HLT31002
• Certificate III in Health Service Assistance (Client/Patient Services) HLT31602
• Certificate III in Health Service Assistance (Allied Health Assistance) HLT31702
• Certificate III in Health Service Assistance (Hospital and Community Health Pharmacy Assistance) HLT31402
• Certificate III in Health Service Assistance (Pathology Assistance) HLT31202
• Certificate III in Health Service Assistance (Operating Theatre Support) HLT31302
• Certificate III in Health Service Assistance (Nutrition and Dietetic Support) HLT31502
• Certificate III in Health Service Assistance (Sterilisation Services) HLT31102
• Certificate III in Pathology Specimen Collection HLT30102
• Certificate IV in Health Services (Supervision) HLT42202
• Certificate IV in Health Support Services (Supervision) HLT40402
• Certificate IV in Health Service Assistance (Hospital and Community Health Pharmacy Technicians) HLT40502
• Certificate III in Non-Emergency Patient Transport HLT30202#
• Certificate III in Ambulance Communications HLT31902#
• Certificate IV in Ambulance Communications HLT41102#
• Certificate IV in Basic Emergency Care HLT41002#
• Certificate III in Dental Assisting HLT31802
• Certificate IV in Dental Assisting (Oral Health Education) HLT40602
• Certificate IV in Dental Assisting (Dental Radiography) HLT40702

Note: Certificate III in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health is a curriculum based qualification that sits outside of the Health Training Package. Its accreditation date has been extended by TAFE NSW until December 2004 pending the development of new qualifications which will be incorporated into the Health Training Package.

Note: Ambulance qualifications and their relationship to non-Ambulance “first response” roles. The Ambulance industry qualifications cover defined roles and work levels across Australia. However these qualifications do not cover personnel who may be tasked to provide an emergency response at a scene as part of an organised Emergency Medical System (EMS) until ambulance or other specialist health services can be provided. It would be expected that those people would have first aid competency to minimum standard of national First Aid Guideline Competency Standard B and would not be regarded as Ambulance workers.

Industrial arrangements
Provisions for the employment of trainees in the health industry exist in the following instruments:

• National Training Wage Award 2000
• Health Employees (State) Award
• Ambulance Employees (State) Award
• Public Hospitals Dental Assistants Interim (State) Award

Award arrangements in the non-government health industry sector vary and include many enterprise agreements. Relevant awards will be included as identified by employers.

Note: Applications under the Apprenticeship and Traineeship Act 2001 to establish any traineeship or apprenticeship will not be approved unless the Commissioner is satisfied that appropriate industrial arrangements are in place.

VET in Schools
No qualifications from the Health Training Package have been identified as appropriate for VET in Schools.

Part-time Traineeships
Under Award arrangements some Health qualifications are available for part-time employment and training.

Learning resources and assessment materials
Some Health Training Package qualifications have support material and resources available to enterprises, trainers and learners. Information regarding products and their availability can be accessed through http://www.skillsonline.net.au

Traineeship logbooks will be developed for the majority of qualifications. NSW Health has identified provision of a logbook for Certificate III in Dental Assisting as a priority. These standardised logbooks, endorsed by the various industry stakeholders, are essential to consistency of assessment and equity in training.

The national ITAB Community Services and Training Australia has resources and information available on www.cshta.com.au.

Ambulance qualifications are the responsibility of the Ambulance Service of NSW, NSW Health, who are the sole training provider and developer of enterprise specific resources.

Availability of Registered Training Organisations (RTOs)
NSW Health is an RTO and may deliver these qualifications in partnership with other RTOs such as TAFE NSW. It is also expected that RTOs will add new qualifications to their scope as demand increases.

The Ambulance Service of NSW is the sole provider of training for qualifications relating to ambulance services.

NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) Training Market website http://www.det.nsw.edu.au/trainingmarket/ identifies RTOs who are scoped to deliver health industry qualifications under User Choice.

The National Training Information website http://www.ntis.gov.au also identifies RTOs in NSW registered to deliver qualifications from the Health Industry Training Package.

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

PAM CHRISTIE
Commissioner of Vocational Training