The story of the Australian recordkeeping competency standards Available to Purchase

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 recommended qualifications which embrace both specialist recordkeeping qualifications and general business services qualifications. The training package may be used to construct training programs through a range of levels, from schoolleavers entering the workforce to do office work, through to professional development 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 standards and the subsequent revision project in the context of major changes in the tertiary education sector in Australia.