Centre for Research in Education, Equity and Work

NEWSLETTER 

Development of national endorsed crime prevention competency standards 

Contact Details 

The University of South Australia

If you have any enquiries about the project, please contact:

Dr Roger Harris
Project Director
Ph 8302 6246
roger.harris@unisa.edu.au

Ms Angelina Edwards
Project Officer
Ph (08) 8302 6712
angelina.edwards@unisa.edu.au

www.unisa.edu.au/CREEW
 
Welcome to the first newsletter for this project!

This is the first in a series of four newsletters that will keep you up to date with the development of these competency standards.

In this newsletter, we would like to introduce both the project and the research team to you.

What is the project about?

This project has been funded by the Commonwealth Attorney-General?s Department to develop nationally endorsed crime prevention competency standards.  Support materials will also be developed to assist training delivery and assessment based on the competency standards. 
The project commenced in April 2002 and will run until December 2002.

Who is on the project team?

The research team is a consortium being managed by the Centre for Research in Education, Equity and Work (CREEW).

CREEW is an officially recognised and funded research centre at the University of South Australia. It undertakes research and consultancy at the interface between education and work, with a strong underpinning on social justice and equity.

The project director is Roger Harris, the researchers are Michele Simons, Frank Wyatt, David Foreman, Gary Edwards and John Bone, and the project officer is Angelina Edwards.

A Project Advisory Group oversees the project.  This group consists of representatives from the Crime Prevention branches of the Federal and State Attorney General?s Departments, Institute of Criminology, Australian National Training Authority, Office of the Status of Women, National Training Advisory Limited (Local Government ITAB), a registered training organisation, Australian Services Union and indigenous vocational training and education.

What is the methodology for the project?

We are undertaking the project in five phases:

Phase 1:  Preparation and initial consultations

During this phase, we will be consulting nationally with identified Industry Training Advisory Boards, crime prevention practitioners and other key stakeholders, including the Project Advisory Group.

There will also be a desktop audit of units of competency embedded in existing Training Packages.

We will also be identifying and gathering existing learning and assessment support materials.

Phase 2:  Occupational analysis

During this phase, we will be interviewing crime prevention practitioners and other key stakeholders in order to analyse the knowledge, skills and attributes of crime prevention workers.

Phase 3:  Verification of units and elements of competency and drafting of
                 learning and assessment support materials

This phase will involve us in drafting the units and elements of competency.  These will then be circulated to a sample of practitioners in the form of a questionnaire.  After feedback is received, a small reference group of practitioners will assist us in further refining the units of competency.

Phase 3 will also involve us in drafting support materials.

Phase 4:  Feedback and final validation

Final drafts of the competency standards and support materials will be emailed to everyone who participated in the first three phases of the project with requests for written feedback and comment. 

We will be encouraging participants to discuss these drafts with their colleagues to ensure as wide a consultation as possible.

Phase 5:  Preparation of documentation for submission to ANTA

The materials and information will be finalised during this phase in order to be submitted to ANTA for the endorsement process. 

We will prepare a final report for the project to submit to the Project Advisory Group for approval.

How can you be a part of this project?

Our brief is to produce a set of standards and support materials that will reflect the various roles and tasks that are undertaken by crime prevention officers around Australia.  To ensure we meet this aim, we are seeking your involvement along the way:

• we may be in contact with you for participation in a focus group or for an interview
• we urge you to help us by disseminating this Newsletter and any other materials as widely as possible to others in your organisations
• we encourage you to contact us with your comments or questions.