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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.<\/p>\n
There is currently a high-profile debate about the university sector\u2019s role in this via the\u00a0Universities Accord<\/a>\u00a0review process.<\/p>\n But the role of vocational education and training is not getting the same level of attention, even though the\u00a0National Skills Agreement)<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0also being developed this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is timely. While enrolments in vocational education and training courses\u00a0increased during the pandemic<\/a>, the latest\u00a0national data<\/a>\u00a0shows 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.<\/p>\n This is despite the fact that\u00a0seven of the current top ten<\/a>\u00a0jobs facing skills shortages require vocational qualifications, rather than university degrees.<\/p>\n The federal government is proposing a five-year National Skills Agreement to start in January 2024. This will be with the states and territories,\u00a0with the aim<\/a>\u00a0of developing \u201chigh quality\u201d vocational education to \u201cboost productivity and support Australians to obtain the skills they need to participate and prosper in the modern economy\u201d.<\/p>\n Its predecessor was the National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development (NASWD), established in 2012. Under this, the federal government provided\u00a0about A$1.6 billion<\/a>\u00a0per year to governments to help deliver vocational education services and run training systems.<\/p>\n But a\u00a02021 Productivity Commission review<\/a>\u00a0found that the NASWD was not increasing skill levels and qualifications. The former Coalition government had planned to finalise a new National Skills Agreement in the second half of 2022. But the election changed the timeline.<\/p>\n After the Jobs and Skills Summit in September last year, the new Labor government signed an\u00a0interim 12-month agreement<\/a>. This one-year agreement provides $1.2 billion to support 480,000 fee-free vocational education and training places (mainly in TAFEs).<\/p>\n This is a welcome start but the longer-term National Skills Agreement needs to focus on three key areas if it is to succeed.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernments have stepped back from some of the NASWD\u2019s policy aspirations. Targets have not been met and the performance framework has not held governments to account,\u201d commissioner Jonathan Coppel said.https:\/\/t.co\/u5u5CIagXX<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 The Mandarin (@TheMandarinAU) January 22, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhat is the national skills agreement?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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