Training and higher education will play a vital role in reorienting the economy after the pandemic.
They will facilitate crisis-accelerated transitions across industries and support millions of workers to prepare for future Jobs - both new entrants to the labour force and existing workers displaced by the pandemic and its after-effects.
Australia's VET system is undergoing extensive reform. This will help ensure it can support new skills acquisition, job creation and participation opportunities, including for young people, women, workers in regional communities and other population segments hit hard by the crisis.
More than 4,000 registered training organisations (RTOs) deliver VET to over 4 million Australians.41
VET is also part of the school system, with nearly 236,000 school students undertaking VET studies at school in 2019.42
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the sector. Current projections see a 30% drop in new apprenticeships (with 130,000 fewer positions) to 2023.43
There have been significant efforts to reform Australia's complex VET system, and a new national partnership agreement was signed in 2020.
However, more can be done, particularly around infrastructure quality. While government funding for the sector was $6.36 billion in 2019, only $181 million was spent on capital projects.44
The Australian Government is taking steps and has committed $50 million over two years from 2020-21 to 2021-22 for the Revitalising TAFE Campuses Across Australia program. This program aims to improve vocational education infrastructure so that TAFEs are equipped to deliver training to the standards expected by industry and students.45
Future VET funding needs to make adequate provision for infrastructure to support digitally enabled solutions, industry-centric equipment and maintenance.
A set of principles for place-centric TAFE developments should also be developed and implemented that maximises their community benefit by locating future TAFEs in fit-for-purpose buildings and targeted industry precincts. Collaborative and shared-use opportunities will be enabled by supporting co-location and joint investment with other social infrastructure providers, industry, local governments and RTOs. For more on this see Reform 8.2: Partnerships to build communities.
Facilities should be integrated with planning for transport and other surrounding infrastructure, ensuring they are well located for access, close to where most students live and near industries that will ultimately employ the students.
These principles should also support the delivery, in partnership with Australia's universities and industry, of skill-development programs that produce a workforce capable of delivering tomorrow's infrastructure pipeline. Read more about this in the Industry productivity and innovation chapter.
New forms of collaborative infrastructure will also support micro-credentials. These are specific short courses in higher education that are flexibly delivered, allowing Australians to gather skills and knowledge across a range of education or industry settings, to create a culture of continual learning.