All happening in 2023! – comment by CEO Jenny Dodd

Lots happened this week. The budget was central to this, outlining direction for vocational education and training in 2023, establishing Jobs and Skills Australia, and providing the budget for the higher education review.

Firstly, the main ticket item for TAFE was the one-year 2023 national skills partnership agreement, which has TAFE at the heart, with funding for the free-fee places. Each state and territory will develop, in negotiation with the Commonwealth Government, their priority list of courses and eligibility criteria. As reported by the National Skills Commission there has been an increase in occupations on the skills priority list recently so there is much to choose from. Although there will be commonality, such as in the critical area of attracting people to develop skills for working in the care industries, there will also be differences. The differences will reflect jurisdiction priorities.

Most pleasing was the inclusion of $24million for wrap around support services for students receiving a free-fee TAFE place. As I was quoted in the Australian Financial Review this week, “the additional places (free-fee TAFE) will be absorbed by people who traditionally did not access the training market. The Jobs and Skills Summit had a very strong focus on equity and attracting people into the labour market who were not active participants. Fee-free TAFE has proven in Victoria to be a policy that enables those people to get the skills they need.” However, that requires additional support services in learning areas such as literacy and numeracy, and for example in counselling and mental health services. As education entities with extensive student support services, TAFEs have always focused on providing support for learners to achieve their outcomes.

The budget also had a strong focus on skills for the clean energy economy. TDA with its members looks forward to being part of the workforce planning process that Jobs and Skills Australia will undertake.

That leads to the second significant development this week and that was the establishment of Jobs and Skills Australia. Identified in the budget, and with the legislation passing through the Senate this week, this independent body can now get going on providing advice about current and future skill needs. This is an important coordination role for planning the skills needed for Australia’s future labour force.

An important adjustment to the final Jobs and Skills Australia legislation was the inclusion of universities in the list of bodies that will be consulted. Originally the focus was on employers, unions, industry stakeholders and training providers. TAFEs look forward to working with their university partners through these discussions.

The final significant development is also linked to both higher education and the budget. There was budget allocation of $2.7million for a comprehensive review of higher education. This work will be led by a panel of ‘eminent Australians’. Although not released until next month, the terms of reference are likely to include the full suite of tertiary education activity.

So, there is much going on for TAFE next year – read more about it as 2023 unfolds.