This paper follows on from an early paper (Cairns, 1992) whereby the then burgeoning application across Australia’s  Vocational Education and Training system of Competency-Based Education and Training and the introduction of a National Qualifications Framework which had been subjected to little critical debate was reviewed and examined. The title suggested that for many in the VET field, and in ‘industry’ at the time, Competency-Based Education and Training (CBET) was being seen as some ‘nostrum’ (pet scheme for political reform) and that the purveyors of the ideas in the public forum were akin to Nostradamus (the soothsayer). The way competence and competency-based Vocational Education and Training  operated since that time across Australia has been influential beyond the shores of that country. There have also been enhancements and further developments that have moved the ideas and approaches “beyond competence” towards Capability thinking. Now, some 16 years later, after a great deal of work across the country of Australia, it is worthwhile to stop and examine where the introduction of workplace Competency-based Education and Training has taken the area and to what extent it has been useful as a systemic and systematic approach to training and workplace learning. The ideas and developments utilised across the Australian systems have, we argue, implications for Europe based on that experience. This paper traverses the territory, using work of Billett et al (1999), Townsend, Waterhouse & Malloch (2005), and others, to discuss the progress and some issues that have arisen over the nearly two decades of work in Australia in the area of Competency-Based Education and Training and what implications our debate and critique may have for the European considerations of Competence and Competency-based Training and Education.