Foreword

Australia’s vocational education and training (VET) sector will continue to be an important contributor to ensuring our workforce has the necessary skills to meet current and future social, economic, and environmental challenges and opportunities.

However, many people still hold negative perceptions of VET. These perceptions are often driven by poor understanding of VET and by policy decisions and media representations that reinforce the belief that university is necessary for personal and professional success.

During this inquiry, it became apparent that learners, employers, and other stakeholders lack reliable information on VET, and often rely on individual RTOs and government websites. Information is often inconsistent across sources and is not always current or relevant. For example, while the National Careers Institute (NCI) was created as a ‘one stop shop’ for information on courses, qualifications, and careers, the Committee heard is not functioning as it should, and requires significant enhancements if it is to deliver for users.

In addition to ensuring reliable information on the VET sector, marketing VET and the careers to which it leads to learners, employers and other stakeholders will be critical to dispelling negative perceptions. However, information and marketing efforts are insufficient. Tangible improvements to the VET system must also be made.

Secondary schools must do much more to promote VET to their students, including providing relevant, accessible information on VET and associated industries and careers and promoting VET and university as equally valid. This must be supported by quality, structured careers education for all students.The quality of VET delivered in secondary schools is also variable across Australia, and is undermined by lack of qualified educators, inadequate school funding, and a lack of meaningful engagement between schools, VET providers, and employers.

It is crucial that VET keeps pace with technological advances and an increasingly dynamic labour market. This requires careful consideration of approaches to developing and accrediting qualifications and units of competency, including Training Packages (historically the building blocks of VET) and the emerging micro-credentials ecosystem. Enhancing training also requires addressing the shortage of VET educators, including exploring alternative pathways into teaching to leverage industry experience and diverse pedagogical approaches.

Apprenticeships are, and should remain, a cornerstone of the VET sector. However, the inquiry found that apprentices are not receiving the support they need to complete their qualifications and are discouraged from remaining in the apprenticeship by low wages and poor conditions.

Without doubt, measures must be implemented to increase women’s participation in VET, including better responses to gendered violence and discrimination, real efforts to address harmful stereotypes about women’s aspirations and capabilities, and greater support for women in VET pathways.

Lifting perceptions of VET and ensuring the sector can respond to current and emerging skills needs will require fit-for-purpose regulatory, funding, and governance arrangements, and measures to ensure the sector has a robust public core. Strategic partnerships between providers, employers, and other key stakeholders should be supported, as should cooperative arrangements with other sectors such as the employment services system.

Enhancing the experience of VET students is critical to lifting perceptions of the sector. At present, many campuses lack adequate student representation, up-to-date facilities, and meaningful advisory services. This must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Meeting future skills needs will require a whole-of-tertiary-system approach, with far greater integration between VET and higher education. There would be value in separating the VET sector into ‘education’ and ‘training’, with longer qualifications focused on holistic student development and shorter courses focused on discrete or industry-specific competencies.

The Committee has made 34 recommendations in this report which aim to address negative perceptions of the VET sector and enhance the quality of and access to VET. These include:

Significantly overhaul the functions of the NCI.
Campaigns to promote VET and VET careers via a variety of channels to diverse audiences.
Promoting VET in secondary schools and reducing reliance on the Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranking (ATAR) as the primary measure of success in secondary education.
Developing a national careers education strategy for secondary schools.
Improving VETDSSS via cooperative partnerships and employers and increased school funding.
Rationalising development and implementation of VET qualifications and units of competency.
Addressing systemic barriers to women’s participation in VET, with a focus on eliminating gender-based violence and workplace discrimination and challenging gender stereotypes.
Enhancing apprenticeships, including by piloting a network of industry-led apprenticeship support providers, lifting pay and conditions for apprentices, and exploring new apprenticeship pathways.
Creating a robust framework for developing, implementing, and funding micro-credentials.
Ensuring that the VET Workforce Blueprint contains measures to attract and retain qualified VET educators with industry expertise and a greater range of pedagogical competencies.
Improving the quality of and access to facilities and supports available to VET students and staff.
Defining a clear roadmap to a genuinely integrated tertiary education system.

The Committee’s report was informed by and intersects with the findings, recommendations, and measures pursued through other inquiry and reform processes, including the Employment White Paper, National Skills Agreement, and Australian Universities Accord. The Committee’s findings and recommendations should be considered alongside those processes.

I would like to thank each of my parliamentary colleagues on the Standing Committee on Employment, Education, and Training for their engagement over the course of this inquiry.

I also thank the individuals and organisations who contributed to this inquiry, including current and former students who shared experiences and suggested improvements.

Ms Lisa Chesters MPChair