When you apply for a course at TasTAFE, you may be required to provide evidence of your previous schooling or qualifications to ensure that you have the level of literacy and numeracy skills you need to successfully complete your chosen course.
If you don’t have that evidence to apply for your course, that’s ok – you’ll just need to undertake an online literacy and numeracy review.
The Basic Key Skills Builder (bksb) is an approved online review tool which will give you a level for your English (literacy) and Maths (numeracy) levels, and can also help to identify any skill gaps or areas that you might need additional support in.
The bksb review takes between 30 and 60 minutes per review (1 for English and 1 for maths) and will give you a rating that is aligned to the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF).
Who needs to complete a bksb?
Some courses require all potential applicants to take the bksb and achieve a certain ACSF level of literacy and numeracy to be offered a place.
For VET Student Loan applicants , the bksb will also be a requirement if you don’t have a high school certificate, International Baccalaureate, or a Certificate IV qualification or higher. You will need to achieve Exit Level 3 (working at Level 4) in the ACSF for both of the literacy and numeracy skills assessments.
For most other courses, you will be given access to bksb as part of your induction. This will help identify if you need extra support as you go about your course.
Start the bksb
The first step in your application is to complete the TasTAFE support tool, the Basic Key Skills Builder (bksb). Your responses to this support tool will help our staff to advise on how you may be successful in the program you are applying for or to provide you guidance on a pathway to another qualification.
If your course requires you to undertake a Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (BKSB) your account details and instructions will be sent to you within 24 hours of applying, or if you would like to make a right after applying – log into your Student Portal and select the BKSB Account from the menu. Here you can request a login to be emailed to you straight away. If you have previously undertaken the Literacy and Numeracy Assessment – we will review your results and notify you if further action is required. Once completed the results of your BKSB assessment will automatically upload to your student account so you do not need to email the results to TasTAFE.
To find out more about the bskb review, download a copy of our bksb User Guide (PDF) or bksb User Guide (Word)