Generic skills in a framework of essential learning

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority released a document for consultation entitled Victorian Curriculum Reform 2004. In one sense the consultation paper (sub-titled A Framework for Essential Learning) is a surprising document, and in another way it should not be surprising as it has been in gestation for more than a decade. For some fifteen to twenty years there have been rumblings about the need for upper secondary and tertiary education to be less academic and more oriented to 'the real world', in particular the world of work. In the early 1990s this concern was manifest in the generic skills in a construct called The Key Competencies. The development of the Key Competencies was supported by business and industry, the unions and the higher levels of state and federal governments. Similar work-related skills constructs were developed in other countries at about the same time.