Defining and mapping generalist skills across Australia's training system to reduce duplication and inform future Training Product Development.

Scope

The analysis will focus on training packages across the Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Business Services (BSB), Financial Services (FNS), Community Services (CHC), Health (HLT), Sport, Fitness and Recreation (SIS), and Creative Arts and Culture (CUA) sectors.

Project scope includes: 

• Assessing relevant frameworks (Australian and international) to identify and define the generalist skills needed across the Australian economy, including how those skills relate to Foundation Skills. 
• Determining existing coverage of those generalist skills within selected training packages through analysis of existing units of competency and qualifications. 
• Identifying duplication across training packages, qualifications and units of competency  
• Identifying gaps in existing products and priority product development. 
• Validating findings with industry and working closely with Jobs and Skills Australia, the cross-JSC Generalist Skills Working Group and JSC-specific industry engagement mechanisms.  
• The creation of a roadmap, outlining the development and, implementation of training products and the reduction in duplication over time across defined training packages. 

This project does not develop or change training products. It provides the evidence and direction to inform future Training Product Development and Qualifications Reform activities.  

Why this project matters

Generalist skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving and adaptability are essential across all industries. They underpin how people work, adapt to change, and apply technical skills in real-world contexts. 

Employers consistently report shortages in these capabilities, particularly as technology continues to reshape job roles and career pathways. Workforce plans across multiple industries point to this as a system-wide issue, not one confined to any single sector. 

There is no agreed framework around which generalist skills are required, nor a shared library of generalist skills. The approach to date has been piecemeal, generalist skills are not consistently designed, imported or contextualised across training packages.  

Existing units of competency largely focus on tasks rather than skills, which has led to significant duplication within the VET system. More than 2,000 units of competency have over 90 per cent overlap with at least one other unit, and over 5,000 have significant overlap. 

There is currently no agreed, cross-industry approach to how generalist skills are defined or applied within the training system. In many cases, they have been treated the same way as task-based competencies, resulting in fragmentation, duplication and gaps across training packages. 

Moving towards a clearer definition of generalist skills is a significant enabler of Qualifications Reform. It will help simplify units of competency and reduce overlap and duplication across the training system. 

During this activity we will work closely with JSA to maintain alignment with the National Skills Taxonomy as it evolves, identifying relationships between the identified generalist skills and emerging taxonomy structures to support future consistency across the system. 

Consultation & Feedback

Consultation will be embedded throughout the project and aligned to existing Jobs and Skills Council engagement mechanisms. This will include:

• consultation with the Cross-JSC Generalist Skills Working Group  
• engagement through JSC industry consultation channels  
• targeted validation with stakeholders where required. 

Consultation will focus on: 

• validating the definition of generalist skills  
• testing findings from training package analysis 
• confirming gaps, duplication and priorities for future work