V11 CoCA News OPD

Report by Robyn Caine Vice President of CoCA

In my capacity as Vice President of CoCA and a member of the CoCA OPD portfolio, I attended a meeting on 18th August, 2010 in Canberra with the three OPD Providers, the Registrar of Marriage Celebrants, Deborah Nance and members of her department along with Rona Goold in her capacity as a  CoCA delegate.  Nigel Caswell, who heads the CoCA training portfolio,  was unable to attend at this time.

The meeting gave us as CoCA representatives the opportunity to present some of the matters and concerns many associations and celebrants are experiencing regarding OPD, both for 2010 and in the future.

OPD issues that CoCA has raised with the AGs Department and recommendations for improvement.

1. Ongoing Professional Development

CoCA has expressed concerns to the AGs about

a. OPD Providers:

• only three providers being appointed and those chosen concentrated on the east coast of Australia (two in the Brisbane area and one in the Geelong area).
• two of the three have not recently been involved in delivering OPD and may lack for necessary recent experience.
• only one of the three selected trainers was really prepared and that another of the three is still struggling to organise the necessary Australia wide presenters, given the 3 OPD providers were appointed late in April, as most celebrants try to undertake their OPD studies during the winter months when the market for ceremonies is at its lowest.
• several established training organisations, highly respected in the celebrant community, were not appointed despite their appearing to be better choices and in a good position to commence immediate delivery of OPD.

b. the OPD requirements:

• the confusion regarding the exemptions from OPD available to people who complete the Certificate IV in Celebrancy (CHC42608)
• some training organisations offering ‘fast track’ certificate courses, at very low prices, that these courses appear to undermine the very exemptions they seem to be designed to take advantage of
• allowing marriage celebrants access to the exemption from professional development, where no or little recent training is actually undertaken, and leads to the awarding of the Certificate IV in Celebrancy
• the current OPD program still offering little choice to competent longer-term celebrants.
• at least one OPD trainer is suggesting OPD electives represent a way of commencing Certificate IV.  However, as the electives on offer are not Certificate IV units it is not clear how practical this will be as a way of attaining the Certificate.
• some celebrants may assume they will be able to achieve Certificate IV progressively through OPD, although this is not currently a practical proposition.
• the contribution OPD can make towards achievement of Certificate IV,  which CoCA considers a very important issue as there are  large numbers of celebrants whose level of training is far below that now required of new applicants for registration.
• Independent evaluation of the OPD Program
  
  

CoCA Recommendations to the Department:

• review the new exemption arrangements and consider removing the current exemptions.
  
  
• all celebrants  be required to undertake OPD -  based on recent experience of  member associations,  it is often the new graduates  who seem  most in need of OPD; because  their training  may have been very basic and they lack any practical experience.
  
  
• RPL being available to longer term celebrants, recognising that “RPL is a valuable learning experience in its own right" [see the NCVER Report "Recognition of prior learning at a glance”, (Feb 2006)]. Recognised Prior Learning involves considerable work by students to verify their prior knowledge and skills, and requires Gap Training.
  
  
• encouraging as many celebrants as possible to upgrade their level of qualification and gain the Certificate IV within the next five years as a crucial step in improving the knowledge and skills base of the marriage celebrant sector.
  
  
• practical way to allow celebrants to progressively undertake the Certificate IV and offset their Certificate IV training against the their annual OPD obligations.
  
  
• undertaking approved units of Certificate IV in Celebrancy (CHC42608) be recognised as equivalent to undertaking other approved OPD training for practising celebrants to be able to complete this Cert IV  on a part time basis over three to five years. This approach would  be more economically accessible because payments can be spread over three to five years, and  learning over a longer period would be much more attractive to many practising celebrants. Specifically CoCA  propose that:-

1. One Cert IV unit, undertaken face to face or by distance education, (which is approximately thirty assessed hours work), be regarded as equivalent to five hours annual OPD; and
2. Two Cert IV units, gained by Recognised Prior Learning and any necessary gap training, are regarded as equivalent to five hours of annual OPD.

CoCA delegates:

• have prepared a proforma for CoCA  to obtain feedback from member associations and their individual celebrant members, and
  
  
• is currently assessing the practicality of collecting feedback from celebrants who are not members of any association.
  
  
• participated in an OPD Monitoring meeting on the 18^th August with representatives of the MSC and the OPD providers.

Some concerns discussed were:

1. longer term celebrants having different needs to newer celebrants
2. wide variety of needs of 10,000+ adults - some with primary school level education through to PHDs.
3. despite a wide choice on offer in an OPD providers program, only 3 or 3 components of that choice were available in a  specific geographic location.
4. need for smaller class sizes.
5. need for active learning sessions, rather than lecture style. Perhaps pre-reading required, then a discussion format.
6. the value of networking at OPD lost if OPD done online, but the latter possibly the only way for celebrants to gain the variety.
7. the need for Cert. IV units (face to face, online & distance learning) to be approved as OPD activities as well as units by recognised prior learning as outlined in CoCA's OPD letter sent on behalf of CoCA. This is on the basis that the AGs needs to support the development of celebrancy as a profession, given its charity status at present with the over-supply of celebrants.

CoCA suggested topics for non-compulsory:

• Basic inter-net language and usage. - email, using web-mail, researching the net, using association and AG's websites etc.
•  Association's website based OPD showing association members how to use Association resources
• Creative writing - personalising a ceremony
• Desktop publishing for making personalised Marriage Vows, Appreciation and Family Certificates, and Presentation Memento copies  of the   Ceremony
• Planning a Presentation Session for Engaged Couples - focus on marriage, marriage education, legal matters and the ceremony
• The history of marriage - cultural social and psychological aspects
• The history of the Marriage Celebrant Program in Australia
• Values Clarification: professionalism. civil marriage celebrant role and religious celebrant role - similarities and differences
• Celebrant Support: Celebrant Associations, CoCA.
• Digital equipment & use - digital cameras, iphones, ipods, ipads
• Symbolism

Topics discussed for Compulsory Units:

• Witnesses with Disabilities
• Conflict of Interest
• Names entered on the Notice of Intended Marriage form and
• Names used in the Marriage Vows.
• The Monitum and Vows - all versions approved by the dept to be available
• English as a second Language
• Extended Families – managing the blend
• Catering for the non-aligned religious celebrants.