May 2011

Driving national reform to boost skills and productivity

The Australian Government will work with state and territory governments to reform Australia's vocational education and training (VET) system.

Details of the Australian Government's reform plans were released in the 2011-12 Budget.

State and territory governments will be asked to meet new benchmarks for improved quality, transparency and outcomes as a condition of funding, worth more than $7 billion in total over five years from 2012-13.

The Australian Government will renegotiate the National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development with the state and territory governments and introduce a national partnership to reform the VET system.

The state and territory governments will also be offered an additional amount of up to $1.75 billion over five years from 2012-13 for jurisdictions that are prepared to sign up to a more ambitious reform of the performance and quality of their respective public training systems.

The Australian Government's reform agenda is for the VET system to:

  • deliver better quality, higher level training which meets the needs of employers and students, supports competitive industries, and is better matched to future jobs growth
  • have greater transparency, so it is clear Australian Government funds are being properly targeted to skills needs, and employers and students can choose the training organisations which perform well and best meet their needs
  • be more efficient by ensuring investments in skills deliver the right skills to the economy at the right time
  • support equity through increased participation by groups not currently fully engaged in work and up-skill existing workers so they can stay engaged in employment as skills requirements change.

The Australian Government will also consider the reform proposals outlined in the recently released Skills Australia report: Skills for prosperity: a road map for vocational education and training.

This page was generated on 30 May, 2011

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