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The annual Report on Government Services (RoGS) provides information on the equity, effectiveness and efficiency of government services in Australia. The report is presented in seven parts: Part A - Approach to performance reporting; Part B - Child care, education and training; Part C - Justice; Part D - Emergency management; Part E - Health; Part F - Community services; and Part G - Housing and homelessness. Data in the 2022 report may be impacted by Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and this has been noted in the report.

Part B, section 5, 'Vocational education and training', contains performance information for vocational education and training (VET) services. There are 11 indicators within the VET framework measuring access, appropriateness, quality, efficiency and outcomes. The indicators are: Barriers to participation in VET by selected equity group; Barriers to participation in VET; Students who achieve main reason for training; Employer satisfaction with VET; Student satisfaction with quality of training; Service quality; Government recurrent expenditure per annual hour; Student employment and further study outcomes; Student completions and qualifications; Students who improved education status; and Skill utilisation. Show less

The Australian Government's objectives in commissioning this Inquiry are to examine the current operation of the Fair Work Laws and identify future options to improve the laws bearing in mind the need to ensure workers are protected and the need for business to be able to grow, prosper and employ. The report is a broad ranging assessment of Australia's workplace relations (WR) framework, considering current laws, institutions and practices. While Australia's vocational education and training system is outside the scope of this enquiry and has not been examined in any detail, the issue of apprenticeships and traineeships was raised. Section 5.3 of the report looks at arrangements for apprentices and trainees and explores some possible ramifications of some recent changes. It recommends a comprehensive review of Australia's apprenticeship and traineeship arrangements which should include, but not be limited to, an assessment of: the role of the current system within the broader set of arrangements for skill formation; the structure of awards for apprentices and trainees, including junior and adult training wages and the adoption of competency-based pay progression; and the appropriate design and level of government assistance to employers and individuals which should take into account the factors that affect the supply and demand for apprenticeships and traineeships, including the impact of junior pay rates and immigration policy.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

The National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development (NASWD) [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 108.1569] - which commenced in 2009 and was updated in 2012 - defines the framework for intergovernmental collaboration in vocational education and training (VET). It sets out governments' roles, policy aspirations, performance measures, and reform directions for the formal VET system. The Australian Government has asked the Commission to review progress against the targets, outcomes and performance indicators in the NASWD and to assess whether it is still an effective long-term framework for intergovernmental cooperation on VET policy. Intertwined with that assessment, the Commission has also been asked to consider options: (1) to coordinate and streamline government support; (2) for national consistency in VET funding and pricing that maximise efficiency, transparency and the supply of trained workers; (3) to promote consistency in funding and loan arrangements between the VET and higher education sectors; and (4) to ensure government investment in VET encourages increased participation in training that is commensurate with the benefits. During this review there have been major skills policy developments. In November 2019, the COAG Skills Council released a Draft VET Reform Roadmap [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 139.175] which set out three priority areas for improvement - the relevance, quality and accessibility of the VET system. In response to the 2019 Joyce Review [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 136.59], the Australian Government established a National Skills Commission (NSC) and a National Careers Institute (NCI). And in August 2020, all governments signed a Heads of Agreement for Skills Reform [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 141.854] setting out high-level directions for a new National Skills Agreement to replace the NASWD. The Commission has taken this evolving policy landscape into account in its assessment and recommendations. The review has also coincided with the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond the immediate disruption for students, employers and VET providers, the pandemic may lead to substantial structural changes in the VET sector. VET policy announcements have been at the centre of government responses to the pandemic and, where possible, the Commission has incorporated these announcements in its assessments. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of VET and why 'getting the system right' is critical to meeting Australia's changing skills needs.

This report was sent to Government on 15 December 2020 and publicly released on 21 January 2021. Its key messages are that the NASWD should be replaced with a new principles based agreement, and there is manifest capacity for governments to get a better return from their investment in VET. The key points are: (1) This review has not found evidence of a VET system in crisis. Our recommendations address some of the system's acknowledged weaknesses and should build on its strengths to lift participation and improve the quality of training; (2) The NASWD is overdue for replacement: governments have stepped back from some of its policy aspirations. Targets have not been met and the performance framework has not held governments to account; (3) A new intergovernmental agreement should be principles-based, modular (to retain flexibility and currency) and reviewed every five years: Australian Government funding should remain largely untied for base funding but subject to much greater accountability and transparency; (4) Governments should continue to support the development of a more efficient and competitive VET market through informed user choice and a focus on quality: students need better curated information on career opportunities, the performance of training providers, course quality and prices; and efforts to improve quality should be ramped up through faster changes to training packages, developing an evidence-based VET workforce strategy, and a phased introduction of independent assessment; (5) There is a manifest capacity for governments to achieve a better return on the $6.4 billion spent on VET by: using the efficient costs and loadings currently being estimated by the NSC as a common basis for setting and simplifying course subsidies; introducing modest minimum student fees for Certificate III and above courses with exemptions for disadvantaged students; applying more contestability and transparency to public funding of TAFEs and enhancing the operational autonomy of public providers; and enabling State and Territory funding to follow students enrolled with an interstate provider; (6) To scale up workforce skills, governments should expand VET Student Loans (VSL) to more Diploma and above courses and to most Certificate IV courses: loan caps should better reflect course costs, and loan fees should be paid by all students; (7) Reforms to the trade apprenticeship system are best focused on: improving completion rates by better screening and matching of prospective apprentices; making pathways more flexible and providing the same subsidy for non-apprenticeship pathways as for traditional pathways; and adjusting the timing of employer incentives to provide more support when the risk of cancellation is greatest; (8) There should be a coordinated national strategy to improve school education, 'second-chance' learning in the VET sector and other adult education services to reduce the large number of Australians with low language, literacy, numeracy and digital literacy skills; and (9) To address some of the key obstacles to lifelong learning, this report proposes improvements in foundation skills, better credit pathways, an expansion of VSL and a trial of a new financing instrument for mature-age Australians reskilling and upskilling.

Edited excerpts from publication and publisher's website. Show less

Non-traditional employment, or employment that is not full-time and ongoing in someone else's business, has become increasingly common in Australia. This paper draws on four different surveys (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Forms of Employment Survey (FOES) and Survey of Employment Arrangements and Superannuation (SEAS); the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey 1995 (AWIRS 95); and a 1995 survey of workplaces (undertaken by Brosnan and Walsh) to present an analysis of the incidence and characteristics of one form of non-traditional employment, i.e. fixed-term employment. A fixed-term employee is defined as 'an employee with leave entitlements engaged for a specified period or for the duration of a specific task'. The analysis covers: (1) employer and employee motivations for choosing fixed-term employment; (2) a critical appraisal of estimates of fixed-term employment in Australia; (3) the question of whether or not fixed-term employment might have become relatively more common in Australia during the 1990s; and (4) a comparison of the characteristics of ongoing and fixed-term employees. Key findings suggest that: it is not possible, using available data, to determine whether or not fixed-term employment became more common during the 1990s; fixed-term contract employees are a diverse group, and differ markedly from ongoing employees in a number of ways; and the majority of fixed-term contract employees (72 per cent) expected that their contract would be renewed, indicating that many fixed-term employees may have a longer tenure than their employment arrangement would suggest. Show less

In Australia, a growing number of employed people work as self-employed contractors rather than employees. This paper presents an analysis of the incidence of contractor-type employment and the characteristics of contractors. Self-employed contractors are defined as 'employed persons who operate their own business without employees and supply labour services to clients on an explicit or implicit commercial contract basis'. The paper investigates: changes in the proportion of employed persons working as self-employed contractors over the past two decades; the proportion of employed persons working as self-employed contractors; the proportion of these contractors that are dependent contractors (employed on contractor-client terms but with work arrangements consistent with them being an employee); the characteristics of self-employed contractors compared with employees; the characteristics of dependent compared with independent contractors (those working on contractor-client terms and with work arrangements consistent with them being a contractor). Key findings include: definitions of self-employed contractors and dependent contractors are not straightforward; self-employed contractors are a diverse group; self-employed contractors are employed in all occupational groups and industries; the share of self-employed contractors among employed persons in Australia increased by at least 15 per cent over the two decades to 1998. Show less

This report presents the Productivity Commission's views on the costs and benefits of industry-specific assistance to the automotive manufacturing industry, in light of the structural change that will occur over the next few years as Ford, Holden and Toyota close their motor vehicle manufacturing plants in Australia. Key findings presented in the report include: retrenched employees face costs associated with job search and training, and some will have lower paid or less secure jobs once re-employed; loss of employment is particularly challenging for older people, or those with poor English proficiency or lower skill levels; while retrenched manufacturing employees may take longer on average to find re-employment than employees retrenched from other industries, within a year about two-thirds are likely to be re-employed on a full, part-time or casual basis; adjustment pressures are likely to be concentrated within particular regions, such as North Adelaide, parts of Melbourne and Geelong; some affected regions already have relatively high rates of unemployment and social disadvantage; governments should ensure the appropriate resourcing of the delivery of generally available welfare, training and employment services for all clients in regions placed under pressure by automotive manufacturing retrenchments; governments should consider ways to better target assistance to retrenched employees who are likely to encounter the greatest difficulties finding re-employment; regional adjustment funds, infrastructure and defence spending and industry support programs are costly and ineffective ways to facilitate workforce adjustment.

Edited excerpts from publisher's website. Show less

In December 2021, the Australian Government asked the Productivity Commission to examine the long-term factors affecting the productivity, efficiency and dependability of Australia's maritime logistics system and to identify mechanisms to address issues raised through this work. This report summarises the Commission's draft advice against its terms of reference which include: to consider operational cost drivers, and specifically to examine: the performance of Australia's ports, including in comparison with ports internationally; impacts of the maritime logistics system on Australian consumers, business and industries; workforce issues in the system, covering industrial relations, labour supply and skills; infrastructure challenges in ports and connected landside supply chains; and technology uptake, innovation and data capture and sharing within the system.

Chapter 1 of the draft report includes information about the inquiry; chapter 2 overviews Australia's maritime logistics system (section 2.1), reviews trade flows (section 2.2) and describes key system actors (section 2.3); chapter 3 explores the performance of Australian container ports; chapter 4 considers the state of competition in the various markets that make up the maritime logistics system and sets out the Commission's framework for analysing competition; chapter 5 uses the framework to analyse whether port operators have market power, and if so, whether they exercise it; chapter 6 applies the framework for assessing market power developed in chapter 4 to the maritime logistics system excluding ports; and chapter 7 assesses port capacity and landside infrastructure.

Chapter 8 begins with a snapshot of Australia's port workforce (section 8.1), then describes the relevant parts of Australia's system of workplace relations (section 8.2). Section 8.3 sets out the structures that confer bargaining power to employees or employers. Section 8.4 discusses the link between workplace relations and productivity. Finally, section 8.5 describes how the Commission has given weight to the interests of all Australians in assessing whether changes are needed to the operations of workplace relations in Australian ports. Chapter 9 examines the operation and impacts of workplace relations in the ports and makes draft recommendations designed to promote productivity and reduce harm to third parties.

Chapter 10 focuses on skills, training and labour supply in on-water roles within ports and in stevedoring roles within container terminal operations because these are the parts of the system that inquiry participants have provided information on to date. The chapter: outlines how skills are acquired in on-water roles within ports and stevedoring roles (section 10.1); examines whether there are skills shortages in the ports and impediments to labour supply (section 10.2); and assesses the training system's capacity to adapt to future skills needs (section 10.3).

Chapter 11 provides a snapshot of how technology, data, information and innovation are used overseas and in Australia's maritime logistics system, identifying technologies, information and innovations that appear to be the most significant in the pursuit of productivity, efficiency and resilience, and it also examines frameworks that can support the development and use of technology and information; and chapter 12 looks at issues surrounding coastal trading and its regulation (section 12.1), and at proposals for a national 'strategic' fleet that seek to address concerns about Australia's reliance on overseas shipping operators and international trading vessels (section 12.2). Final submissions to the inquiry are due by Friday 14 October 2022.

Edited excerpts from publication and publisher's website. Show less

This paper examines the changing demand for skills in Australia and finds that, at the aggregate economy level, the supply of skilled relative to unskilled workers has increased in line with increasing relative demand. The authors also examine the effect of increased skill on conventionally measured productivity growth and report that, during the 1990s productivity surge, the contribution of skill to productivity growth was diminished by the contribution of other factors. Key points to emerge from the research are: (1) the demand for skilled workers in Australia has increased faster than that for unskilled workers over the last two decades; (2) factors other than increased skill have mainly contributed to Australia's productivity surge from the mid-1990s; (3) international comparisons do not support a link between growth in skills and Australia's 1990s productivity surge; and (4) despite these findings, education and skills still remain important for long-term growth and for meeting the changing pattern of demand. Show less

The Productivity Commission, at the request of the Australian Government, has undertaken a research study on the productivity and economic impacts of migration and population growth. This study examined: the nature of international migration flows; the impacts of migration on the skill levels of the Australian population and in industries and occupations; the relationships between migration and population growth and workforce diversity; the ways in which migration and population growth impact on productivity; the legislative and other impediments which prevent Australia from realising potential productivity gains from migration and population growth; and the impact of migration and population growth on labour force participation and economic growth more broadly. The aim of this issues paper is to assist individuals and organisations in preparing submissions to the study. It contains information about the background, scope and conduct of the study and outlines the economic framework and outlines some of the broad issues on which the Commission is seeking information and comment.

Documents from this study are indexed from TD/TNC 85.409 to TD/TNC 85.412. Show less

This research paper documents what happened during the demand driven university system before it ceased in 2017. The study explores what happened to young Australians during the demand driven system using administrative, population and longitudinal survey data. The study addresses two research questions: (1) Who are the 'additional students' who enrolled in university under the demand driven system who would not have had the opportunity in earlier periods, and what are the academic and labour market outcomes they achieved?; (2) To what extent was the demand driven system more accessible to people from under-represented 'equity groups'? And what factors predict the under-representation of these groups?

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