Improving Australia's training system

The need for reforms of the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system to build the skills of the workforce and to facilitate the processes of economic development and structural change had been well documented in previous Ministerial statements ('Skills for Australia' (indexed at TD/LMR 85.648); 'A changing workforce' (indexed at TD/LMR 85.675); and 'Industry training in Australia: the need for change' (indexed at TD/LMR 85.664)). This policy statement announces reforms that would underpin the award restructuring process already in process, with an extended and improved training infrastructure. The initiatives outlined in this statement aimed to enhance the quality, consistency and equity of the national training system. They included: organising a meeting of relevant Federal and State Ministers to seek agreement on establishing a National Training Board to determine national standards and skill competencies across a full range of industries and occupations; establishing a National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition (NOOSR) to enable the development of national standards for competency-based skills recognition; allocating funding for skills audits, development of skills and competency-based training, curriculum development and an expansion of Training Services Australia and Group Training Schemes; funding to improve equity in apprenticeship arrangements to encourage more disadvantaged groups to enter the job market; and more flexible and broadly-based training arrangements.