Newsletter

The Jobs and Skills Summit included a focus on Australia’s goal of moving to clean energy. This is an emerging industry requiring new training and new partnerships to deliver the skills that are needed for the workforce.

Today’s message is directed to TDA members. There is a lot happening in our world of TAFE, from the outcomes at the Jobs and Skills Summit, including the announcement of the ‘training blitz’ and fee-free TAFE places for students, to the work we do every day educating and skilling students and employers. To achieve great outcomes takes an exceptional workforce. Therefore, today I call on people working for TAFE or a dual sector university to recognise your colleagues by nominating them for a TAFE Staff Recognition Award.

A key theme of the Jobs and Skills Summit two weeks ago was equal opportunities and pay for women. An important contribution to improved pay is the link with qualifications. Skills and qualifications generally allow entry to better-paying careers.

Last week I stated that the Jobs and Skills Summit should consider simplification of the national training system. TAFE desperately needs more flexibility to deliver training that employers need, now and for the future. To achieve this flexibility, better funding for vocational education and training is essential.

Once again, NCVER reported that for apprentices who started in 2017, completions have not increased (reported on later in this newsletter). There have been significant policy attempts to improve apprenticeship completions including incentivising employers, and more recently direct payment early in the apprenticeship to the apprentice.

The role of tertiary education will be essential to the discussion at the Jobs and Skills Summit in early September. If productivity is to be improved and our quality of life sustained, then tertiary education will be part of the solution. With the demand by all industries to uplift workforce skills, new solutions must be found.

Last week, the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill was the first legislation before the 47th Parliament. This highlights the importance the Albanese Government is placing on how we better align the demands of the emerging labour market with “current, emerging and future skills and training needs and priorities.”

“The gift of near full-employment” is how the current environment was described recently in the Australian Financial Review (15 July 2022). The fact that nearly every Australian who wants a job can get one is something in this two-plus years of disruptive pandemic conditions we must be grateful for and commend those who created the conditions that have made this possible

Last week, the Treasurer announced the jobs and skills summit. He stated this is about ‘tapping the appetite to come together … to grasp the opportunities … to seize the moment … and to find common purpose’. Approximately 100 people will be at this two-day summit in Canberra on 1 and 2 September.

From 1827 to 2022 a form of TAFE has existed. That’s nearly 200 years! The first adult technical college was founded in Hobart in 1827 and that was followed closely by a college in Sydney in 1833. TAFE is a part of the fabric of adult education and training in every State and Territory and in all metropolitan and most regional communities.

The public consultation period on the training and education products has closed. TDA members are broadly supportive of the changes that have been proposed. This feedback has been provided. For example, in the Certificate IV Training and Assessment, members support the inclusion of the online units and the moving of some units from core to elective.

TDA congratulates the Hon. Brendan O’Connor MP and the Hon. Jason Clare MP who have been appointed to lead the skills and training, and education portfolios respectively.

TAFE has been the bedrock in skilling communities over decades. Under the Labor federal government, TAFEs will continue to play a pivotal role in ensuring Australia has the skills for now and into the future. So, what will be different?