V09 OPD where does it lead ?

OPD and Raising the Standard of Training for All Celebrants.

I had the privilege of being one of the two celebrant representatives on the Industry Reference Group for the last Review of  the Training of Marriage Celebrants. The new Certificate IV in Celebrancy was the outcome of a huge amount of work by celebrant associations, register training organisations and the Attorney General's Marriage Celebrant Section.

The concern of all these groups was to ensure that the course provide celebrants with the foundations for them to design and deliver meaningful and appropriate ceremonies for the Australian community and the specialised knowledge and skills to perform marriages, if the student wanted to to apply for appointment.

The rationale for this was both the understanding that  common knowledge and skill underpins all ceremonies and the need for the modern professional celebrant to be able to perform a range of ceremonies in the post 2003 competitive climate.

I support the current requirement for authorised marriage celebrants to do 5 hours of Ongoing Professional Development.

However, looking at the course outlines for the current OPD, it is  clear that OPD is not articulated with the Certificate IV in Celebrancy in any practical way.

Almost all OPD courses are fragments of various Cert IV units, and thus will require extra training and assessment, and thus extra fees, to convert OPD learning into accredited Certificate IV  units.

Therefore in considering the relationship between the new Certificate IV in Celebrancy, the training needs of pre-2010 celebrants and Ongoing Professional Development, I have come to the conclusion that Ongoing Professional Development policy needs to be reviewed to enable OPD to be directly and pragmatically used by

* long term celebrants with no prior celebrancy training, and
* post 2003 marriage celebrants

to gain a Certificate IV in Celebrancy qualification, if they so choose.

Generally a unit of a Certificate IV course requires approximately 30 hours work and associated assessment. Thus any celebrant doing one or more units of the Certificate IV in Celebrancy in any OPD year would be doing far more than the 5 hours minimum attendance required under the current OPD policy.

Gaining 3 year exemption from OPD because a celebrant has upgraded their qualifications in a one year period is obviously a far higher standard than just 15 hours of traditional OPD.

The latest suggested changes of removing the ability of celebrants to gain a Certificate IV in Celebrancy by Recognised Prior Learning (RPL) and gap training appears discriminatory to longer term celebrants and newer celebrants who may have high levels of training and/ or knowledge and skills acquired "on the job".

An experienced mature age leaner would need to spend at least  15 hours of their time, gathering the information to justify their being granted a Cert IV in Celebrancy via this method. RPL is not a Magic Wand and remember the celebrant's application also  requires assessment

In many other professions, training to upgrade qualifications would be an acceptable OPD practice. And Up-skilling the Nation is a worthy government aim that needs to include celebrants in a very practical way.

Thus the primary aim of Ongoing Professional Development at this stage of  celebrancy development, should be to encourage all existing celebrants who choose to,  to upgrade their qualifications to the new Cert.  IV In Celebrancy in the next 3 to 5 years.

I consider that an alternative option for OPD should be the successful completion of units in Cert. IV in Celebrancy  each year and a formula worked out for this.

For example:
I unit of Cert IV = 1 years OPD     and  2 units at RPL and gap training = 1 years OPD

The cost for 5 years of the current style of OPD per celebrant is $ 500 to $ 1000. If one adds travel costs etc even more.

Surely each celebrant should have the right to choose to spend this money towards gaining the latest qualification in their field?

Those planning to retire out or who are not able to afford to upgrade will still have access to the current style OPD program.

However, I believe that many celebrants would make the effort to find the extra money to add their current OPD fees to gain a Certificate IV in Celebrancy in the next 3 to 5 years, if this option were available.

What is your opinion ? Please write to me at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Kind regards
Rona

Rona Goold
B Sc (Gen Sc) Dip Ed
Civil Marriage Celebrant JP 
CCN Convenor
Robertson NSW 2577
www.civilcelebrationsnetwork.org