Australia's VET System and Societal Workforce Challenges

Introduction: VET and Australia's Workforce Future

The chapter on societal concerns in Wexley and Latham (2002) provides a detailed analysis of the expected future for Australia's workforce and the microeconomic implications of broader trends in areas including workforce training and education. The central question — whether the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system currently in place in Australia can or will enable solutions to current and future societal concerns — depends on whether the VET has the proper measures in place to handle forthcoming issues and to direct resources toward their resolution.

Job training is clearly identified as a critical issue for the future of Australian society. Will there be sufficient resources to enable citizens and visa workers in Australia to increase productivity and sustain an increasing marginal return on GDP growth? The VET system integrates the resources necessary to increase vocational qualifications across the workforce. However, several issues still need to be addressed.

The areas addressed in the societal concerns chapter — including Basic Skills Training, English as a Second Language (ESOL), older workers, telecommuting training, cross-cultural training, and time management — are able to be addressed throughout Australia via the integrated network that connects places of learning, the workplace, and the trainee. The VET is a system that facilitates the integration of these core elements, which are critical to sustaining the skillset needed to supply a growing economy and increase productivity.

Employer Engagement and System Effectiveness

The VET has enjoyed a high degree of success with Australian employers. According to a study by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), employers can engage with the VET system in three ways: by having vocational qualifications as a job requirement, by employing apprentices and trainees, and by using nationally recognized training. Employees who had apprentices and trainees represented the most satisfied group. More than half of Australia's employers (54%) have a connection with the VET system through one or more of these three ways (What Employers Want, 2009).

However, employer feedback also reveals areas for improvement. Some employers think that the skills being taught are not relevant, some believe training is "too general" and "not specific enough," and some think there is not enough focus on practical skills. Employers with higher involvement in the VET system — either through apprentices and trainees or through nationally accredited training — tend to be less dissatisfied (What Employers Want, October 2009).

The type of skills taught is partly a subjective issue, as one employer may not deem the VET system appropriate for their particular vocational training needs. Yet the large majority of employers view the vocational training as sufficient to addressing their workforce skills needs as the market changes and adapts to new software, technology, and methods of conducting commerce.

The OECD conducted a review of VET in Australia as part of its "Learning for Jobs" policy study, which aims to help countries make their VET systems more responsive to labor market needs. VET competencies and qualifications cover around 80% of occupations in Australia. During the research period in 2008, over half of employers reported having used the VET system in the previous twelve months — either because they had jobs requiring a VET qualification, they employed an apprentice or trainee, or they had staff undertaking other nationally recognized training (What Employers Want, June 2009).

The VET system thus appears to address the urgent need for qualified individuals within the Australian economy. Investment in training the workforce to power the economic engine of Australia has the potential to resolve a number of the sociological issues mentioned in the societal concerns chapter.

Nevertheless, capacity constraints remain. As one policy report notes, "enhancing the capacity of the VET system to address skill shortages is another key priority. The low rate of completion of training courses is an additional policy issue facing the sector" (Enhancing Educational Performance, 2008). VET programs can be undertaken through multiple pathways connecting schools, post-secondary institutions, and the workplace, and reforms aimed at increasing skills and eliminating skill gaps — including more demand-driven provision of training accompanied by outcomes-based funding — are therefore welcome (Enhancing Economic Performance, 2008).

Qualifications, RTOs, and Workforce Competitiveness

Much of the current focus of the VET system is on training the youth of Australian society. By engaging young people early, the system can track and train employees according to prior work experience, expected career goals, and current skillsets. Yet the skilled VET workforce also contributes to innovation beyond direct production. Across the European Union and Australia, around 45% of the business research and development (R&D) workforce is comprised of VET-qualified workers, mostly technicians and tradespeople. A large-scale study of tradespeople and technicians employed in Australian R&D labs found that they make a significant contribution to R&D performance, reflecting their practical skills, knowledge, and approach to problem-solving (Toner, 2010).

The VET system is remarkably varied and diffuse, broadly defined as the delivery of post-school, non-university education and training by public and private sector entities. In 2007, 60% of the total Australian workforce held a post-school qualification recognized by the Australian Qualifications Framework, of which 60% were below the level of a bachelor's degree. In 2006, around 1.7 million people enrolled in publicly funded VET courses. Approximately 12% of the total population aged 15–64 undertakes VET training at some point during a given year, with about 80% enrolled at TAFE (Toner, 2010).

The varying qualifications of the VET workforce reflect the system's character as an adult education and training mechanism. With VET, the ability to update one's skillset provides a potent and resilient workforce. As Hawke (2007) notes, qualifications have long been a contested issue for trainers and educators, but Australia has in recent years been part of an international trend back toward valuing qualifications. The VET system is now built around qualifications, which provide the central organizing structure for the system. Consequently, government funding is tied to qualifications, and support for employers providing education and training is linked to enrollment in a qualification. For this reason, many enterprises have become Registered Training Organizations (RTOs), allowing them to offer recognized qualifications to their employees (Hawke, 2007).

The RTO enables broader recognition of an employee's skillset and allows VET to register as an RTO, ensuring the worker has the broadest possible spectrum of skills. Ironically, the argument raised against VET — that qualifications may not always be relevant — is the same argument that supports the RTO model, as the Australian government incentivizes the building of workforce skillsets. The argument of whether qualifications are relevant tends to be made against VET but not against the RTO, suggesting a possible transition in the sector.

Key reasons cited for the importance of increasing qualification levels in society include the following: people with qualifications are more likely to gain and keep a job; they earn more over their lifetime; qualifications make it easier to move between employers, especially in difficult economic times; qualified individuals are held in better regard and feel better about themselves; gaining a qualification encourages people to continue improving their knowledge and skills; and Australia's relatively low skills base compared to major competitors requires improvement in order to compete effectively (Hawke, 2007).

Qualifications also provide a means by which organizations and legal counsel can claim compliance and accountability in hiring practices and in the supposed competency levels of staff. The likelihood of a trained employee making a critical error decreases significantly when the worker is specifically trained to handle the tasks they are paid to perform.

Conclusion: VET's Role in Addressing Societal Concerns

There is a clear need for all of the issues discussed in this paper to be addressed. Training in areas such as diversity, harassment, wellness, and safety can be provided, but not within the same framework used to deliver critical skills training that directly increases yield and productivity. The primary purpose of VET is to ensure the workforce is currently prepared and will remain prepared in the future. Additionally, the student population is expected to enter the system and obtain an employable skillset. The concept of Australian students leaving the country to work overseas is not directly addressed by VET, but the expectation is that the system will re-engage students and workers by making domestic employment a compelling and well-supported pathway.

Overall, VET is a system that strategically positions Australia to respond to its most pressing workforce and economic concerns. Where it falls short — in the areas of diversity, harassment prevention, wellness, and safety — those gaps are real but reflect limitations of scope rather than systemic failure. Continued reform, demand-driven funding, and closer integration between government policy and industry needs will be essential to ensuring the VET system remains capable of sustaining the skills base that a growing and increasingly competitive Australian economy demands.

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