VET News

The National Skills Agreement: Just Three Vital Things ....

This week saw a number of publications, including The Conversation, The Times, and The Sector, focus on the hot topic of contention in the VET Sector at present - the development of the new National Skills Agreement.

Australia continues to grapple with acute skills shortages. Businesses are struggling to find workers with the skills they need. Meanwhile, workers struggle to get jobs because of the mismatch between available training and occupations.

There is currently a high-profile debate about the university sector’s role in this via the Universities Accord review process.

But the role of vocational education and training is not getting the same level of attention, even though the National Skills Agreement is also being developed this year.

This is timely. While enrolments in vocational education and training courses increased during the pandemic, the latest national data shows in the first nine months of 2022, there was a decrease of 6.1% in government-funded enrolments in these courses, compared with the same period in 2021.

This is despite the fact that seven of the current top ten jobs facing skills shortages require vocational qualifications rather than university degrees.

The longer-term National Skills Agreement needs to focus on three key areas if it is to succeed:

1. Retaining more apprentices
2. Making training more flexible
3. Encouraging more vocational-uni collaboration

Read the full media publication releases via the links below:

• The Conversation - 22 March 2023
• The Sector- 22 March 2023
• The Times - 22 March 2023

Date posted Mar 30, 2023