VET News

Interim Report Released

The Productivity Commission has released an interim report on the National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development (NASWD), which is overdue for replacement.  The objectives of the NASWD are to ensure that Australia’s VET system delivers a productive and skilled workforce.

The scope of the review will consider:

1. achievement of the objectives, outcomes, performance indicators, targets, reform directions and roles and responsibilities set out in the NASWD and their ongoing suitability
2. options for governments to coordinate and streamline their support for vocational education in the future
3. options for nationally consistent government funding and pricing arrangements that maximise efficiency, transparency and the supply of trained workers for the economy and promote consistency of incentives
4. options to promote consistency in funding and loan arrangements between the VET and higher education sectors, and on any cross sector impacts that there might be
5. options to ensure government investment in VET encourages increased participation in training by all Australians and is commensurate with the outcomes and benefits derived by individuals, business, industry, the local and national economy and society more generally
6. potential for future funding arrangements to achieve further targeted reforms, including extending Language, Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy (LLND) programs to all TERMS OF REFERENCE v Australians and other relevant recommendations from the Expert Review of Australia’s Vocational Educational and Training System (the Joyce review)
7. options for improved performance indicators, data and information sharing arrangements to enable all governments to assess the effectiveness of VET investment and delivery.  

Key points covered in the interim report include:

• Better allocation of the $6.1 billion of government spending on VET in an effort to improve outcomes.
• Reforms needed to ensure VET is more efficient and flexible in delivery.
• Principles-based agreement.
• Reforms to VET funding.
• Common methods used to measure costs and loadings to promote fairness of subsidies.

The interim report might be different to expectations based on previous draft reports from the Commission.  This report focuses more on options than draft recommendations.  The Commission’s main interest is the implementation of effective measures to make training more accessible and affordable for Australians.

For more information, you can view the interim report on Productivity Commission’s website.

Date posted Jun 11, 2020