"I speak in support of the ministerial statement on revitalising national planning in vocational education and training—with some experience working with some of the most experienced technical workers in this country."

Address to the Federation Chamber, Ministerial Statements - Vocational Education and Training

Thursday 14 September 2023

Thank you to the member for Cunningham, my friend Alison Byrnes MP, for her contribution. I know Alison is helping drive a skills revitalisation in her home of Wollongong, getting the training needed for the jobs of the future. Alison follows a great member in the former member for Cunningham, Sharon Bird MP, a former minister for vocational education and one of the great champions of TAFE. In Canberra, the heart of that VET skills reorganisation will be in my electorate of Bean, both in Philip at our new TAFE precinct and in some of the industrial areas where some of the more interesting and innovative organisations are developing here in the Austrian Capital Territory.

As the minister noted in his statement to the House, we face challenges as a nation. OECD data identifies Australia as having the second highest labour shortage amongst OECD countries. And the Skills Priority List shows that occupation shortages nearly doubled from 2021 to 2022, jumping from 153 to 286 occupations. In March 2022, a former national skills commission predicted that over the next five years, nine out of 10 new jobs would require post-school qualifications, with four out of 10 requiring vocational training. This is the legacy we inherited.

With that challenge outlined, I speak in support of the ministerial statement on revitalising national planning in vocational education and training—with some experience working with some of the most experienced technical workers in this country. Before I came to this place, I worked for Professionals Australia and represented and engaged with technicians, scientists and engineers in both the public and private sectors. I worked closely with the Electrical Trades Union and the AMWU, two of the giant technical unions in this country. I understand quite well their commitment to skills development as well as everything else in the world of work.

My organisation, Professionals Australia, was responsible for developing the first MBA program in Australia. Investment in supporting undergraduate qualifications but also understanding the need to buttress that with additional training, both in the workplace and through institutions, both VET and universities, has always been central to the Professionals Australia ethos. One of the standouts for me was that quality skills or VET training drove quality in the workplace, and that, in turn, was good for their organisations. But what I saw over a decade was a drop-off in investment in qualifications in engineering and science, and, at the same time, I witnessed the almost complete loss of technical skills in and across workplaces, particularly in government departments.

Rebuilding this capability is critical. The Albanese government get this. If we are to meet the challenges of the future—clean energy, defence industry, software and application programming, a greener transport fleet, natural disaster mitigation, agricultural production, high-skilled manufacturing and making the utmost of our critical mineral reserves—then we must have a skilled workforce in place, and a workforce that combines both technical and professional skills.

We were given a mandate to drive improvements in the VET sector, and Minister O'Connor has done a power of work laying down the foundation for that reform—reform that will ensure that national planning for the skills our economy needs is timely, high quality, evidence based and tested for veracity against the first-hand knowledge of industry and all the key industry players. The establishment of Jobs and Skills Australia and the creation of 10 Jobs and Skills Councils are significant milestones in the skills and training portfolio. These are strategically linked to provide effective, structured, national and sector based planning frameworks and the modern, timely skills development that is needed for Australia to be a more productive and prosperous nation.

Jobs and Skills Australia and the Jobs and Skills Councils have industries and experts at the core of their governance and work programs. Jobs and Skills Australia replaced the National Skills Commission. The commission provided an important body of work, but it was limited to a narrow mandate and was not structured or resourced for deeper engagement with industries and state and territory governments. A critical element that is central and baked into the design of Jobs and Skills Australia is ensuring that impacted industries and knowledgeable stakeholders have a seat at the table.

As I said before, ten tripartite Jobs and Skills Councils have now been established: energy, gas and renewables; agribusiness; early educators, health and human services; arts, personal services, retail, tourism and hospitality; public safety and government; manufacturing; finance, technology and business; mining and automotive; building, construction and property; and transport and logistics. These councils will work hand in glove with Jobs and Skills Australia, providing on-the-ground industry perspectives of the real economy. Jobs and Skills Australia data and analysis will be integrated with the experiences of those running businesses, who are often the first to identify emerging trends. The councils will then lead workforce planning for their industries to identify immediate skills needs, as well as those needed in the future. They'll both work directly with industry sectors on the planning and training required to address immediate medium- and long-term skill needs. But right at the heart of this is tripartism—employers, unions and governments working in cooperation.

As I said before, my experience in these sectors is that the unions put intense work into skills development, whether it be through licensing or encouraging apprenticeships. As I said, my old organisation had the first MBA program in Australia. We've always been at the heart of the skills challenge. Creating improvements to address national skills requires more than the Commonwealth government working in isolation or with a few select and favoured partners. We all need to work together.

It's worth mentioning, in support of this ministerial statement, that this government has already been delivering on other areas in the skills challenge. We've taken a focus on increasing participation at both the school and the tertiary level. We're rebuilding a sector wilfully neglected by the previous government because we understand that a strong VET sector is critical to nearly all of our key policy challenges. That's why the Albanese government is investing over $400 million to reform foundation skills programs through the redesigned Skills for Education and Employment program.

We also know that the skills challenge is even more acute for our First Nations Australians, with about 40 per cent of adult Indigenous people having minimal English literacy. This figure can rise to as high as 70 per cent in remote communities. For this reason we've emphasised co-design and First Nations led delivery in the government's plan for the future of foundation skills programs.

By working in genuine partnership with our state and territory counterparts, our fee-free TAFE program is helping support key industries experiencing skills shortages. It's focused on areas of emerging growth while providing access to priority cohorts, including the most vulnerable in our communities. The numbers have already spoken for themselves. In the first six months we exceeded our target of 180,000 enrolments, with almost 215,000 Australians enrolling in fee-free courses. That's 215,000 people accessing high-quality training in areas where we need skilled workers.

Demographic data shows that this approach is making inroads in supporting disadvantaged and in-need Australians, with enrolments including more than 50,000 jobseekers, more than 15,000 people with disability and more than 6,000 First Nations Australians. We're not stopping there. We're providing funding for a further 300,000 fee-free TAFE places starting next year. Put simply, the opportunities of fee-free study can change lives. But, at the same time, it will change our economy and help us address the key critical policy challenges that we face.

Every member of our government knows the importance of skills and training for jobs of the future. I thank the minister again for the hard work of his team and, of course, the hard work of his department.