How vocational education and training (VET) practitioners understand and use competency standards is of fundamental importance to the quality and integrity of the Australian VET system. This small study seeks to address this question by gaining insights from 30 VET practitioners. The research found that VET practitioners have little faith in the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and feel somewhat ill-equipped to interpret competency standards when developing curriculum. Furthermore, the unclear language and 'jargon' contained within the competencies make them hard to decipher. The author points to a number of potential solutions, including more intensive initial training, followed up with activities such as assessment validation to help build expertise.