At my last CRM course with Virgin Blue they discussed the possibility of moving to an assessment based course as CASA would like to see this happen at the moment. CASA looked at bringing it in a few years ago but had a change of heart. However with the recent change of government in Australia it has been put on the agenda again.
The big question was how do you assess it? If it is done by instructors how do you ensure that they maintain a level playing field. One persons opinion can be vastly different from another's.