The Australian Government, in collaboration with states and territories, has released the VET Workforce Blueprint (the Blueprint) to support and grow Australia’s vocational education and training (VET) workforce. It provides a roadmap for national, local, training provider and industry action to respond to VET workforce challenges and barriers.
Skilling people for nationally critical industries is a priority of the Australian Government and can’t be achieved without a capable and sustainable VET workforce. Millions of Australians access vocational education and training to gain the skills they need for secure, fulfilling, and well-paid jobs.
Due to the growing demand for skilled workers, the VET sector is under increasing pressure to attract and retain a skilled workforce. Importantly, the supply of VET teachers, trainers, and assessors is not keeping up with demand, particularly in key industry areas. This imbalance between the need for staff and the lack of supply is the result of a unique set of challenges facing the VET workforce.
The Australian Government, in collaboration with states and territories, has developed the Blueprint to grow and support a sustainable VET workforce. The Blueprint has 3 key goals:
- Grow the workforce: Increasing the number of people entering the VET workforce pipeline to ensure long-term supply of the staff needed.
- Retain and develop the workforce: Improving retention and supporting workforce capability to ensure a sustainable, highly skilled and quality VET workforce, both now and into the future.
- Understand the workforce: Developing a data collection for the VET workforce and undertaking foundational work and research to better understand the various roles and pathways across all VET contexts.
The Blueprint provides a roadmap to address challenges and barriers to the attraction, retention and development of the VET workforce. It identifies 8 opportunities and 14 actions to support and sustain the VET workforce in Australia, and provides a long-term plan that will be responsive to changes within the VET sector and the economy.
The VET Workforce Blueprint’s actions are flexible and allow for responses at the national, state, local, industry and training provider level. This ensures actions align with local and regional contexts and priorities.
The Australian Government is investing up to $100 million over 5 years through the National Skills Agreement to strengthen the VET workforce and respond to the Blueprint. This includes $70 million for state and territory initiatives, with funding matched from states and territories, and $30 million to support agreed areas of national action.
The initial suite of agreed national actions are foundational to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the VET workforce. They include:
- occupational mapping for the VET workforce
- a VET workforce data strategy
- an ongoing research program into workforce issues
- mapping and analysing compliance and administrative burden to inform strategies to reduce this burden.
The Australian Government is also providing $12 million to Jobs and Skills Councils for industry-specific VET workforce initiatives. These will inform and complement opportunities and actions identified under the Blueprint.
More information
- Read the VET Workforce Blueprint
- read the Minister's media release
- Find out about the National Skills Agreement