Designing the User/Using the Design: The Shifting Relations of a Curriculum Technology Change

Abstract

Competency-Based Training (CBT) is a newly introduced national system of vocational skills development, designed to improve the performance of Australian enterprises through upgrading workers' skills. This paper presents a modified network analysis of the development and use of CBT by the various actors - including government, industry, unions, organizations, training practitioners, trainees, training protocols and training materials - making up this 'social technology'. 'Competency training' is taken to conform to a conventional approach to systems design, where things are divided up according to the separate spheres of planned development and practical implementation. I deal, first, with t..