The Australian outdoor education sector has diverse qualification pathways and expectations ranging from industry requirements to professional practice. The focus of this project is to detail and explain an area of continued confusion – that of the differences in learning and responsibilities across these graduate pathways (vocational and tertiary) and related guidelines (particularly the Australian Adventure Activity Standards).
The Australian Qualifications Framework and the National Outdoor Education Threshold Concepts are a means for the sector to gain clarity in these pathways so they can better match their expectations with the capabilities of the level of graduates they work with and for. We offer specific examples, from multiple tertiary institutions, of the expected professional understanding and capabilities of university-trained outdoor educators in the context of bushwalking education.