Australia has its first National Skills Plan. Released in late September, the plan outlines Skills Ministers’ vision for the national vocational education and training system. It follows last year’s National Skills Agreement, which saw the commitment of an additional $3.7 billion invested into the VET system over five years by the commonwealth, state and territory governments.
The plan is designed to coincide with and dovetail into other activities emerging from the skills agreement, like the TAFE Centres of Excellence, and government initiatives like the Australian Skills Guarantee and the Strategic Review of the Australian Apprenticeship Incentives System.
Each state and territory will release their own jurisdictional action plans later this year (November), outlining their respective strategies to meet the objectives of the plan. Furthermore, a First Nations Partnership Committee will be established in October to design a nationally networked VET policy partnership and engagement with First Nations people, organisations and communities, addressing one of the priorities of the agreement and plan, which is centred on Closing the Gap.
Also expected by the end of this year, will be an ‘outcomes framework’, which will measure jurisdictional progress against population and system level outcomes and targets, with the measures and indicators reported as a ‘scorecard’ against the national targets. Importantly, the plan will be reviewed and updated annually according to the performance outcomes, evidence, and stakeholder feedback received by government.
The plan will focus on national training priorities and outcomes by providing a vision for industry, employers and the VET sector. The national priorities are:
The Plan reflects a new shared stewardship approach to guide the direction and outcomes of the national VET system, focusing on collaboration as a guiding principle under the five-year National Skills Agreement. It details planned initiatives to strengthen the VET system architecture and workforce, better meet the needs of students and industry, and address cross-cutting and industry-specific national priorities.
