Strong vocational education and training (VET) systems are vital to the success of dynamic, innovative economies and inclusive labour markets. Australia's VET system once provided well-established and dependable education-to-jobs pathways, but a combination of policy vandalism and fiscal mismanagement plunged the VET system into a lasting and multidimensional crisis. During the pandemic, the federal government has pursued further VET restructuring through the implementation of several wage and training subsidy programs at the cost of several billion dollars. This has deepened the ... [+] Show more
Strong vocational education and training (VET) systems are vital to the success of dynamic, innovative economies and inclusive labour markets. Australia's VET system once provided well-established and dependable education-to-jobs pathways, but a combination of policy vandalism and fiscal mismanagement plunged the VET system into a lasting and multidimensional crisis. During the pandemic, the federal government has pursued further VET restructuring through the implementation of several wage and training subsidy programs at the cost of several billion dollars. This has deepened the 'contestable market' experiment unleashed in the 2000s, by subsidising further decentralisation of course content, delivery and student recruitment to unaccountable for-profit training providers. In this report we present comprehensive evidence of the continued erosion of Australia's vocational education system, despite several high-profile announcements of new skills programs made during the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID pandemic. The report catalogues several indicators of training quantity including plunging enrolments, but also measures of training quality, including growth in training by provider type (e.g., TAFE and private sector), training by remoteness/region and gender, whether training is formally regulated and accredited, and how many apprenticeships have progressed to genuine completion. The report confirms that key VET performance indicators have not only failed to improve in the pandemic era, but in many cases have worsened.
The structure of the report is as follows: First, we review key VET funding and enrolment trends driven by a legacy of failed market-based policies, underfunding and continue defunding of the TAFE system. Declining training in remote areas, and the expansion of non-accredited training since 2015 is documented. Second, severe erosion in the apprenticeship and traineeship skills pipeline is catalogued, including declining commencements, training rates, completions, and plunging apprenticeships in feminised care and education sectors targeted by the government's own Apprenticeships Incentives program. The third section reviews the two major VET-oriented programs introduced by the federal government during the pandemic: the JobTrainer Fund and the Boosting Apprenticeships Commencements program. The next sections then discuss how VET policy failure has left the skills system poorly prepared to confront the unprecedented labour market challenges gathering momentum in the COVID era: including youth unemployment and dislocation, and skills shortages (particularly in feminised, COVID-exposed caring services). The conclusion discusses the broad economic and social benefits of the TAFE system to Australia's future economy, reaffirming TAFEs as the most reputable and experienced VET provider for Australia's urgently needed skills recovery.
Excerpts from publication.
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