The INSIGHT LAB: SEPTEMBER 2026

BEYOND COMPETENCY: Building TVET Systems that Learn

Dr Adam Usher

Abstract

Competency-based approaches have strengthened vocational education and training (TVET) internationally by connecting learning with occupational performance, industry expectations and assessment. Yet as competency-based systems mature, a different challenge emerges: how can they continue to learn and evolve as work itself changes?

Drawing on developments in Australia and emerging work in Namibia, this discussion paper argues that the next stage of TVET reform requires attention not only to standards and qualifications, but to the capacity of systems to learn from implementation. It introduces Insight TVET’s Systemic Architecture for Continuous Improvement (SACI) and Representation Design Methodology (RDM) as developing approaches for connecting professional knowledge, system evidence and continuous improvement. 

Rather than proposing another model for replication, the paper invites enquiry into a broader question: what might competency-based TVET look like if continuous learning were designed into the system itself?