Competency-Based Education is a Practical Quality Assurance Exercise

Relevance, responsiveness, and rigour are the most important aspects of competency-based training in aged care. The focus is on your learners (staff), your environment, and the desired outcomes.

Competency-based education under Standard 2.9.6 is not about box-ticking. It is about quality assurance, in that the intention is to ensure that aged care workers can demonstrate the skills, knowledge, and behaviours required to provide daily safe, quality care. This requires more than content. It calls for an iterative approach, a learning system that facilitates continuous listening, meaningful feedback, and can adapt to the diverse and shared needs of the individuals who make up your workforce.

Below, we outline two different approaches to competency-based education. The intention is not to imply that one is ‘better’ than the other; it is about demonstrating different ways to achieve the same outcome.

Case Study 1

Setting: A large residential aged care provider
Challenge: Increased behavioural escalation incidents and staff lacking confidence in de-escalation techniques
Solution: Partnering with an external education provider

The provider noticed that incidents involving individuals living with dementia had been increasing over time. In addition, staff surveys showed emotional strain and hesitation in responding to distress. The organisation had resources available to explore the different training methods available. With knowledge of the education approaches that their staff had previously responded well to, they reviewed options put forward by the external education provider and invested in an immersive training approach that used technology to simulate care experiences from the perspective of a person living with dementia.

Features of the program included:

• Realistic, scenario-based learning grounded in empathy and trauma-informed care
• Built-in competency assessments, debriefs, and observation checkpoints
• Multilingual and accessible design, with plain-English options and visual prompts
  

Training content was co-designed using:

• Feedback from individuals and families
• Incident report analysis
• Staff reflections and supervision data
  

Within three months, the data showed:

• A 35% drop in behavioural incident reports
• Marked improvement in staff confidence and resilience

Quality Assurance strategies:

• Integration into the organisation’s competency matrix
• Ongoing reporting to the board for workforce planning
  

This example shows how a novel technology approach can enable achieving educational & quality outcomes. It can improve work practices through deepening understanding and skill-building. It is important to note that competency verification must be part of the educational design process from the beginning, not an afterthought. Thinking beyond the immediate training, how to feasibly reproduce the training outcomes without an external provider and technology, and setting up accountability for reporting can effectively sustain the gains.

Case Study 2

Setting: A small regional aged care provider
Challenge: Limited training budget and growing complexity of dementia-related behaviours
Solution: Creating a sustainable, in-house training module.

The provider identified that individuals living with dementia were an increasing population accessing their services and that their staff had previously had limited exposure to dementia training. Located in a regional area, the provider discussed with peer service providers to understand the options available. It was identified that there were no local external providers available, and their limited budget precluded other options. The provider was aware that their staff preferred and felt safer when engaging in local customised content.

A call for volunteers to form a small working group was openly communicated to all staff. The care manager, clinical lead, and two experienced care workers responded. They led the designing training around actual incidents, drawn from monthly review meetings. The format was simple, but high in authenticity:

• Roleplays using everyday distress situations
• De-identified real case examples for group reflection
• Embedded micro-learning during daily huddles
• Assessment through direct observation and supervisor feedback

To ensure inclusivity, they used:

• Plain-English scripts and visuals
• Buddy systems for peer mentoring
• Hands-on practice, tailored to staff with low English literacy

Effectiveness was measured by

• Fewer behavioural incidents
• Noticeably higher staff confidence

Quality assurance strategies included

• Linkage of training to both performance reviews and care plan quality indicators
• Formal inclusion in the induction of new staff
• Logged in Continuous Improvement Plan
  

This example shows that competency-based education works well when staff feel psychologically safe & when there is clarity in expectations. This is particularly important when your workforce comes from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Using culturally appropriate visual aids to reinforce the required behaviours can be effective. This provider created a cost-effective, meaningful and auditable system by using incident data, engaging staff as buddies, and embedding learning in daily practice. The provider shared their insights with their peers and plans to apply feedback to make improvements and repeat in the future.

What Matters in Competency-Based Education

Whether you're using technology-enabled solutions or handwritten scenario cards, the key is ensuring your education system:

• Responds to real care needs (as shown by the data)
• Engages staff in learning that feels relevant
• Includes built-in observation, demonstration and verification
• It is accessible, inclusive, and can meet different learning and language needs
• Feeds into quality and continuous improvement initiatives

Above all, it needs to produce confidence for staff, managers, boards, and auditors that your workforce can perform safely and effectively.

Assuring Competency Without Overcomplication

What matters?

• Evidence that staff are supported to apply skills in real-world settings
• A clear method of verification (observation, feedback, case-based assessment)
• Systems for monitoring relevant data and integrating it into the training system
• An ability to respond to new needs and risks, with initiatives embedded in your organisation's continuous improvement cycle
  

These two examples show that there is no one way to do this. Competency training is most effective when it is practical and relevant.

Whether your tools are high-tech or handwritten, what matters most is that your people feel confident, capable, and supported and that your systems can demonstrate that to others.

Want to share your experience?

If you have a case study of how you have approached competency-based education within your service and would like to share it with peers, send it to [email protected].