Professional education for licensed nurses in Australia is a complicated matter involving two education systems—vocational education and training, and higher education—each characterized by a different curriculum model. The contribution of the two systems follows a division of the workforce into Enrolled Nurses and Registered Nurses, with vocational education serving the first division and higher education the second. Although the systems are intended to provide connecting educational and career pathways, it results in a binary education landscape featuring two distinct forms of curriculum and contrasting assumptions about knowledge. This discursive discussion analyses the impact of the competency-based curriculum on Enrolled Nurses' education, entry to the profession of nursing, and their aspirational educational pathways towards registered nursing. Many Enrolled Nurses successfully articulate to become Registered Nurses; however, we argue that traversing between the two distinct curriculum approaches creates barriers to these transitions. We also argue that apart from undermining the learning trajectories of nurses, the influence of the competency-based curriculum model threatens the coherence of the profession at a time when conditions of work are both intensified and globalized, calling for a solution in the form of curriculum harmonization. Nursing Inquiry© 2025 The Author(s). Nursing Inquiry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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