VET News

Skills Ministers Meet to Agree on Strategies for VET Reform

As a nation we are facing the most acute skills shortages experienced in decades and key to addressing this is enhanced engagement across jurisdictions and with stakeholders. 

Federal and State and Territory Skills and Training Ministers met last week to consider essential areas of vocational education and training reform.  As a result, the Ministerial Skills Council will consider the following policies for the VET sector: 

Australian Jobs and Skills Summit

Following the highly successful Jobs and Skills Summit on 1-2 September 2022, which marked the renewal of a national conversation about a shared vision for Australia’s economy and collaboration on addressing skills and labour shortages, Skills Ministers discussed the outcomes of the Summit and opportunities to strengthen the national training system.   Skills Ministers:

• agreed to work in close collaboration and in good faith on several key measures, including immediate funding to deliver 180,000 Fee Free TAFE training places, including 60,000 new places in priority skills need areas.
• commissioned urgent work on what immediate collective action could be taken to alleviate workforce pressures drawing on best practice within States and Territories.
• agreed to work together to improve completion rates for traineeships and apprenticeships to support more Australians into secure work.

Jobs and Skills Australia

Skills Ministers discussed progress to establish Jobs and Skills Australia, which will provide independent advice on the current, emerging, and future workforce, skills, and training needs, and develop close partnerships with state and territory governments, industry including unions, employer bodies, and education providers.
 
Consistent with the Australian Government’s commitment to a clean energy future, Jobs and Skills Australia will, as a priority, undertake a capacity study into Australia’s clean energy workforce. The capacity study will include labour market analysis on factors impacting supply and demand for workers in the sector, a gap analysis of skills in demand for clean energy occupations, a transition analysis to support transition from ‘brown’ to ‘green’ occupations and forecast workforce requirements for the future.

National Skills Agreements

Skills Ministers committed to collaborative engagement on a breadth of priority reform areas under the guiding principles, to achieve a VET sector with TAFE at its heart, that provides high-quality, responsive, and accessible education and training to boost productivity and support Australians to obtain the skills they need to participate in secure and rewarding employment and prosper in the modern economy.
 
Jurisdictions welcomed, and committed to finalising, a 12-month Skills Agreement, to deliver 180,000 Fee-Free TAFE places from January 2023. 

Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 

Skills Ministers agreed to the release of the draft revised Standards for RTOs for public consultation. The Standards are being revised as part of important reforms and are aimed at improving the quality of training delivery through building the capability and capacity of teachers, trainers, assessors, and RTOs to innovate and deliver excellence in training that is focused on learner outcomes.

VET Workforce Capability Blueprint

Skills Ministers also acknowledged the Summit’s strong message that renewed efforts are required to ensure that all Australians have opportunities to skill and upskill, with a particular focus on the participation of women and First Nations Australians, people with disability and young people struggling to enter the labour market.

Qualifications Reforms

Skills Ministers agreed to ambitious timeframes to finalise development of a new system of VET qualifications that will include a framework for micro-credentials without compromising quality. This will deliver qualifications that combine industry specialisations with transferrable skills to assist workers to improve their opportunities in line with shifts in labour force demands. Better recognition of prior learning and improved use of micro-credentials would provide greater flexibility and more opportunities so that learners can upskill or reskill more quickly.

Read full Ministers' Media Centre Release here.

#

Date posted Oct 13, 2022