Vocational education plan
Infrastructure Australia estimates that skills shortages will reach 100,000 by next year - a result of covid border closures and an ageing population. The ABS survey last year showed that 27% of businesses in hospitality, sales, transportation, construction and mining could not find qualified staff.
The response by industry was to call for those places to be quickly filled by 200,000 skilled migrants but we argue it is better and more sustainable to be self-reliant by addressing those shortages through local vocational education and training.
Teacher shortages
However, there are shortages of VET teachers in virtually every industry. One reason is that not enough trainers are offered ongoing full time positions
After a decade-long decline in apprenticeships and training places recent federal and state government programs have increased participation however fewer Australians are applying for jobs and participation in the workforce has fallen by 330,000.
Jobs are changing
Industry needs are changing rapidly and will worsen the shortages unless workers can be retrained and training can keep up with technological advances - the so-called fourth industrial revolution. The Productivity Commission estimates that 40% of employment is at risk of being digitally disrupted by automation over the net 10-15 years. Deloitte Access Economics estimates more than 80% of jobs will be created between now and 2030 for knowledge workers.
Self sufficiency
Global competition, growing geopolitical tensions and the pandemic, demonstrate that Australia has become too reliant in other countries for provision of goods and services. To be more self-sufficient, Australia will need to expand its range of occupational capacities and build a vocational education system that has mature relationships with industry and local enterprises.
| Build a strong vocational education system that has mature relationships with industry and local enterprises including and collaboration between industry, educators and governments | |
| responsiveness and flexibility in delivering skills, from formal qualifications to micro-credentials or non-formal education to reflect the needs of rapidly changing technologies. | |
| VET providers need to work with industry to build systems to facilitate continual learning (such as through flexible micro-courses) to ensure the skills of VET graduates or alumni are upgraded responsively. | |
| Federal and state governments need to work to restore the confidence of employers and students in the VET sector. An important first step is to implement the early recommendations of the Joyce Review on VET. | |
| ensure vocational education provides students – and businesses that employ them – with the future-ready skills needed to succeed in the fourth industrial revolution. | |
| encourage experienced workers from trades and the professions to move into VET. | |
Industry leadership
Industry engagement and leadership is a key requirement However, ‘industry leadership’ has been in place in Australia for over 25 years and still industry complains that TAFE and other providers are not meeting its needs. At the same time, business does not appear to understand the business of education. Labor has a strong preference for structural approaches and Liberals a strong market-based ethos.
In countries that have mature vocational education systems there is often a far more reciprocal, respectful and engaged approach to leadership than adopted in Australia.
Enhancing the status of vocational education
Compared with university, vocational education is seen to have a lower status as a post-school pathway in the aspirations of young people and their parents and this is no doubt how government and community also view it.
For those young people who do not secure university entrance, it can be a circuitous, long and expensive post-school pathway into vocational education, exacerbating skill gaps.
So, there is a role for government/public policy in enhancing the standing of vocational education, and for industry to have a role in promoting occupations as being interesting and worthwhile.