July 2024
This review is urgently needed to address several critical issues facing the industry. Since its last update in 2015, rapid technological advancements, evolving professional standards, and increasing demand for specialised hearing care services, especially for professionals fitting hearing aids or working as hearing service providers, have emerged as key drivers for change.
The existing structure of the qualifications is outdated, with numerous superseded elective units, reflecting industry concerns about skill inconsistencies and shortages.
Project outcomes will result in qualifications better aligned to current industry needs and regulatory requirements, leading to clear and sustainable career pathways to support existing and future growth in the industry.
A project Technical Committee has been being established with members selected for their expertise relevant to the project’s diverse aspects.
Project fact sheet
View the Terms of Reference and Project Reference Group members.
August 2024
We will undertake numerous information gathering activities to prepare draft units of competency, qualifications and skill sets for the national stakeholder consultations. These include:
- a Technical Committee meeting to source stakeholders to consult on qualifications content, communication and consultation strategies insights, and to provide technical knowledge on the skills required to meet the desired vocational outcomes
- 16 one-on-one interviews to determine the skills organisations require, career pathways for workers and changes anticipated in the sector in the foreseeable future. We will include small, medium and large employers, TAFEs and registered training organisations to understand what prevented them having the qualification on scope and what would assist with future training delivery
- a virtual, functional analysis workshop with industry stakeholders from all Australian jurisdictions to determine skill commonalities and differences. This will assist in determining core and elective components of draft qualifications
- desktop research to gather publicly available information on industry standards, working conditions and employer recruitment selection criteria.
November 2024
Consultations were held between November 2024 and January 2025.
We collected feedback through workshops, surveys, site visits, e-mails and subject matter experts (SME) meetings. Workshops were held online and face to face around Australia, engaging multiple stakeholders in metro and regional areas, allowing diverse stakeholder perspectives to be captured. View our Consultation Strategy.
Targeted interviews, public workshops and site visits were conducted with stakeholders providing valuable perspectives on the qualification review. Face-to-face workshops and site visits were held in Perth (4/11/24), Adelaide (6/11/24), Alice Springs (8/11/24), Darwin (11/11/24), Brisbane (14/11/24), Sydney (26/11/24), Albury Wodonga (28/11/24), Melbourne (2/12/24) and Canberra (4/12/24). Stakeholders were also provided with the opportunity to participate in online workshops (21/11/24, 12/12/24, 17/12/24, 15/1/25 and 16/1/25 ) and to submit feedback via survey. The survey for this project closed on 17/1/25.
There where 22 people who attended in person workshops and 20 attended online workshops. We held 4 site visits and received surveys with feedback from 5 participants.
We would like to thank all participants who provided their feedback and contributed to the development of the draft training products. Here's what you told us.
Public consultation feedback
The draft training product documentation for this project is available to download.
Draft Training Product Documentation*
* Note: these documents are our initial draft proposed training products from 2024. For finalised updated products, refer to the Finalisation & Submission tab.
February to May 2025
We appreciate your enthusiastic and positive engagement during the consultation period. Overall, 382 items of feedback were received via in person and online consultation workshops, site visits, multiple surveys and emails.
All responses have been carefully considered, analysed and integrated into the training products in consultation with Project Technical Committee before draft training products were updated.
Please view our Consultation Log containing a high-level summary of all feedback, proposed changes and actions taken with justification provided for feedback which was considered but not actioned. 
Consultation log
The training products have now been submitted to Senior Responsible Officers in each state and territory and the federal government for review.
Draft Training Package
June to August 2025
Please check back later for further information.