Public Feedback on the Foundations of Child Safety Training

Question

Senator KOVACIC: I note the commentary around this as expert led training-the foundations of child safety training. This is a question for the department. Earlier this year I held a childcare forum in Bennelong, and educators there raised this very issue with me: the training can be clicked through without engaging with it. Educators have been saying the same thing publicly. There are a number of public TikTok posts about that, asking for feedback on the training, and one commentator said that they'd watched as someone scrolled through the quiz, copied and pasted the questions into ChatGPT for an answer and finished 'in speed time'. Another said, 'Being able to skip straight to the quiz wasn't exactly reassuring, as a director, that staff were actually taking in any content.' Another commentator said, 'The training can be completed in half an hour by just bypassing all the text and audio.' Has the department seen this feedback from the workforce? Has the department done anything to prevent the quizzes being passed in this manner, whether by skipping through all the content or by using AI? Ms Crane: I certainly haven't seen any of that feedback. I'm very happy to take it on notice, as to whether Queensland Department of Education or ACCP have and how that's being factored into feedback. We have seen the survey results and the feedback that's coming through from the training itself. A critical piece of this is not just whether people undertake the training; it is the reflective practice and the communities of practice that happen. As any of us who have done any kind of training course know, unless you are going to put it into practice, you don't get the value. This is not a one-and-done, in that sense, and we've certainly been reinforcing that with providers. All the feedback that we're getting is positive about the gap that it fills and the benefit that it's having. Senator KOVACIC: I only have one copy. I'll give it to the secretariat. This is a lot of feedback that we've received in relation to this, not just a little bit. Would you be concerned, then, that what is meant to be a national safety credential is that easy to obtain and risks becoming just a tick-a-box exercise? I note your commentary that it's a part of it, but it's an important part, because isn't it creating, effectively, a shield for some people to say, 'I've actually passed that,' when they really haven't absorbed any of the content? Ms Crane: Any negative feedback that we had around the training we'd be concerned about. So I'm very happy to take the feedback that you've got there, and we'll pass that on. Senator KOVACIC: Thank you.

Answer

Please see the attached PDF.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• SQ26-000696.pdf (opens in a new tab)