Pathways into work, further education and training should align with a student’s interests and skills profile, and be guided by the student’s proven capability to apply skills, knowledge and abilities when performing a task or activity, as part of a portfolio of skills applicable to life, work and learning.

Today’s learner must be free to acquire and develop skills in a range of formal and informal educational settings within a learning ecosystem. The ability to enter and exit these settings at any life stage will be critically important to nurturing a community-wide culture of lifelong learning. Moreover, learning that can be tailored to suit the skills profile of each learner – whether skilling, reskilling or upskilling – will make ongoing learning a more attractive option.

Creating an effective learning ecosystem requires multiple inputs, including flexible delivery (i.e.: online, afterhours), buy-in from employers (i.e.: mentoring, vocational placements), cooperation between industry and education providers (i.e.: work-based/work integrated learning, curriculum development), encouragement from government (i.e.: long-term policy focus, employer/business incentives, student funding), and a learner invested in their own learning and development.