Skilling Australia's future - National Press Club, Canberra

Acknowledgements omitted

Thank you to the National Press Club for the opportunity to speak with you about Skilling Australia’s Future.

Something that is central to both our future prosperity and the sense of fairness that is woven into what it means to be an Australian.

Something that I am passionately committed to.

Australia’s greatest asset is our people.

Australians are capable, resilient, and creative.

And, together, we hold the potential to tackle the challenges facing Australia and realise the opportunities of the decade ahead. 

But the world is changing and the systems meant to support Australia’s skilled workers to be their best have not always kept up.

The truth is, skills and training was neglected under the Coalition in the decade up to 2022.

A decade of cuts and neglect carries consequences.

For individuals, and for our economy.

Since the election of the Albanese Government, we have made important progress in turning this around:

Free TAFE.

Establishing Jobs and Skills Australia.

And the landmark $30 billion National Skills Agreement.

These are the foundations of the project we are determined to build.

We want to break down the barriers that stop Australians from fulfilling their potential – enabling Australia to fulfil its potential.

And we will do that by restoring integrity and a sense of purpose to the training system and the relationships it sustains.

Because skilling Australians for the jobs of the future is nation-building.

I come to my role as Minister for Skills and Training as someone who wants to solve problems, and as someone who brings people together.

Almost every national goal depends on skilled workers to deliver it – from net zero, to building homes, to making more things in Australia, to caring for our youngest and oldest citizens.

The world of work is changing – fast – with technology, automation, and AI reshaping industries.

The skills and training portfolio is where we help people keep up, get ahead, and stay included.

It’s how we open doors – especially for those who’ve been left out.

This is the problem the Albanese Government wants to solve:

Preparing Australians for the future of work – making sure no one is held back, and no one is left behind.

To build a better and fairer nation.

This relies on partnerships – with states and territories, with industry, with unions.

With Australians, in all their diversity.

In my time in politics, I have built partnerships, and built trust.

At the Jobs and Skills Summit, I worked with business and unions to find common ground.

And through the Ministerial Forum in Multicultural Affairs; I brought together colleagues to share perspectives and learn from one another.

In Skills, I’ve called my counterparts together to respond collectively to critical issues – like apprentice safety, and productivity reforms.

I keep my door open to business, workers and their unions, students and experts.

And I listen.

When Labor came to office in 2022, Australia faced the worst skills shortage in half a century.

The second-worst across all advanced economies.

This didn’t happen overnight, nor did it come about by accident.

The previous government tore funding out of TAFE and training.

They failed to secure a National Skills Agreement with the states and territories.

From 2012 to 2020, apprenticeships and traineeships dropped sharply.

The only substantive investments the Liberals and Nationals made in training were the untargeted and uncapped traineeship funds – BAC and CAC – which cost around $7 billion.

They turned a blind eye to shonky providers taking cash for qualifications.

This failure eroded trust in vocational qualifications.

Last month, the OECD released a report on the state of the labour markets of advanced economies.

The report highlighted challenging trends: in particular ageing populations, and flatlining labour productivity. 

The report also shows the critical role skills policy can play in supporting both a more productive economy, and a society in which everyone can effectively contribute.

It flags the importance of ensuring that technology, and in particular AI, is harnessed to improve labour productivity – and also makes clear the importance of looking to participation.

To open doors formerly shut.

The Albanese Government, starting from the Jobs and Skills Summit, has taken action to make our skills and training systems more effective and more inclusive.

But there’s more to do.

As Minister, I have three key priorities which I will outline today. 

To break down the barriers between vocational education and training and higher education so they are equally valued.

To promote and support lifelong learning. 

And to strengthen the partnerships that will help realise our national ambitions.

But before I do that I want to pay tribute to the work of my friend Brendan O’Connor.

Thanks to his leadership, we have made real progress in breaking down barriers to accessing skills and training and in better understanding our labour market.

We’ve been building a system that is fit for our national purpose, starting with Jobs and Skills Australia.

JSA is now an essential part of our skills and workforce architecture.

It is a vital national asset, for policy-makers and the wider community to understand our labour market and how it is changing.

As Brendan has said, too often governments have treated skills as an afterthought.

But not the Albanese Government.

JSA places skills at the centre of our national agenda, through its data and analytical capacities as demonstrated by its recent studies on Generative AI and regional labour markets.

Sitting alongside this body are 10 tripartite Jobs and Skills Councils.

Industry led bodies with a strategic approach to training, to look more broadly to workforce planning. 

So that we can have the right people in the right places, with access to the right pathways.

Another key part of our skills and training architecture is the National Skills Agreement.

This Agreement is much more than a transaction framework.

It’s a five year partnership with all States and Territories to deliver genuine, lasting, reform.

Reform that contributes to the type of country we are trying to build.

That seeks to connect individual aspiration to our collective goals, in practical ways.

By working together to strengthen foundation skills, lift VET completions, Close the Gap, and support our teaching and training workforce, we can deliver real change. 

To the lives of Australians, and to advance our prosperity.

A foundation of our reform has been integrity.

The sad truth is that some unscrupulous operators of Registered Training Organisations demonstrated that they valued what people would pay for, not the quality of their training.

The Nixon Review exposed shocking behaviour.

Shocking behaviour – and an equally shocking failure on the part of former government to do anything about it.

Since 2022, we’ve taken real action to restore integrity to the VET sector.

Our Government has invested more than $37 million in ASQA - the VET regulator - and, thanks to this and new powers, integrity compliance operations are surging.

More than 25,000 qualifications have been cancelled and dodgy operators are being put out of business.

But the cost of the previous government’s neglect goes beyond the raw numbers.

It has undermined confidence, hurt the majority of good providers and held back efforts to see VET properly valued.

We need systems we can trust, and which serve our national purposes.

The people doing caring work or building our homes must have qualifications they have earned, and that we can all count on.

Australians trust TAFE qualifications.

So as I’ve acted to clean up our VET sector, I’ve listened to many Australians who have enrolled in Free TAFE.

To students like Caitlin, a single mum and navy veteran from just outside of Canberra who’s studying nursing. Who told me how Free TAFE has meant she can cover the cost of her son’s after school activities. 

Caitlin – I can’t wait to join you at your graduation in May!

And Bradley – a young father who went back to study at TAFE SA. He says Free TAFE has allowed him to pursue a career without the concern of whether or not he can even afford to study and change careers, years after leaving high school.

Free TAFE has now seen more than 650,000 enrolments across the country.  

170,000 of those courses have already been completed.

Free TAFE is breaking down cost barriers and de-stigmatising the idea that learning is only for the young. 

More than 125,000 Australians aged 45 and over have enrolled.

Like Kerryn, a cancer survivor and single mother of five who went back to TAFE to study conservation.

Free TAFE was designed to reach people who had previously been locked out of training opportunities. 

It’s working, with 160,000 enrolments from job seekers, and 50,000 from people with disability.

Women comprise 62 per cent of Free TAFE enrolments.

Free TAFE opens doors that would have otherwise stayed shut.

Holding Australians back.

Leaving Australians behind.

Hundreds of thousands of Australians like Caitlin, Bradley and Kerryn deeply value the skills Free TAFE has opened up for them.

And in the Albanese Government we deeply value them, their talents and the contributions they are making to their communities.

So we have made Free TAFE permanent.

For generations, an apprenticeship has been the pathway through which Australians have acquired important skills, earning and learning.

Now, while there is increasing interest in expanding the model, ‘traditional apprenticeships’ are under pressure.

Producing skills shortages in critical sectors like manufacturing and clean energy – frustrating our national ambitions.

So the importance of landing the right settings for apprentices, their employers and those who train them cannot be overstated.

Behind every apprenticeship is a real person, like Cooper, an apprentice fitter and turner from Adelaide and AMWU delegate. 

I’ve had the opportunity to listen to a lot of apprentices, and while the majority do have positive experiences, we must ensure every apprentice feels valued and supported in learning their trade.

That’s why last year I brought together my ministerial colleagues to ensure we have a zero tolerance approach to apprentice safety and wellbeing.

This has informed a refreshed National Code of Good Practice for Apprenticeships and Traineeships.

This had been last updated in 2012.

The fact is, we need more Australians starting an apprenticeship and more of them to finish.

In 2012, there were around 350,000 commencements and 180,000 completions.

In 2022, the numbers were, respectively, 180,000 and 100,000.

So this is a long-running challenge - which will require sustained effort to resolve.

We are working to turn this around.

Last year, we commissioned the Strategic Review into Apprenticeship Incentives to guide this work.

As an initial response, we have increased two payments, one to support apprentices living away from home, the other to encourage employers to take on an apprentice with a disability.

These were last increased, respectively, in 2003 and 1998.

This illustrates how, and for how long, we have neglected this pillar of our skills and training and workforce planning systems.

And points to the imperative of properly valuing VET pathways.

This wasn’t the case under the former government.

BAC and CAC show us that a wage subsidy is no substitute for a considered approach.

Grill’d’s infamous Hamburger University being just the most egregious example.

Now, we are making progress. 

Focused on meeting our national goals.

There are 50,000 more apprentices in training now than prior to the pandemic.

And construction industry apprentice numbers are also up – almost 28 per cent higher.

We are prioritising homes, not hamburgers. 

We also know that, in eight out of 10 non-completions, it is the apprentice who brings the relationship to an end.

So I’ve been listening to apprentices like Cooper.

Then acting to prevent this waste of potential and productivity.

By saying no to the poor practices that have left apprentices undervalued, exploited and worse.

Exploring more group training options for small and medium businesses – because we hear and see that this works.

Supporting good work in jurisdictions across Australia through the National Skills Agreement.

Making available relevant pre-apprenticeship courses through Free TAFE because evidence shows they boost completion rates.

Our Key Apprenticeship Program in energy and housing has been designed with completions in mind too – a $10,000 incentive, paid in instalments, recognising the importance of cost of living support across the whole apprenticeship.

In its first month, the housing stream of this program saw almost 1,300 apprentice sign ups, with the top three occupations being carpenters, electricians and plumbers - all essential in building the homes Australia needs.

I’ve been engaging with industry and unions on our response to the Review and soon I’ll begin wider consultations.

To understand how we can do better.

Better by apprentices today, and to open up the apprenticeship pathway to more Australians into the future.

To see government investment deliver the biggest dividends, and to encourage a deeper commitment from employers when it comes to training their workforce.

Skilling up Australian workers is an obvious driver of increased labour productivity.

It’s also important to look to participation.

Fundamentally, every Australian should be able to see themselves in every job.

Right now, too many don’t.

This matters.

Jobs and Skills Australia research shows that nearly 80 per cent of Australian occupations are not gender balanced.

This is exacerbating skills shortages, and as Deputy Commissioner Megan Lilly has said, it’s ‘a handbrake on our economy’.

OECD research backs this up. 

In occupations that are gender balanced there are less likely to be shortages - and the same goes where we have a mix of ages and where people with disability are present.

There are real benefits to broadening participation. We know diverse workplaces are more productive.

Our Government is investing to make sure we capture these benefits.

We’re supporting women to succeed in traditionally male-dominated fields, including through the Building Women’s Careers program.

This includes Building Futures, a program breaking down barriers for women entering plumbing.

Where, in Narre Warren, I met Jackie – not only an excellent plumber, but also an advocate for more women to get involved.

Encouragingly, 32 per cent more women have now started trade apprenticeships compared to pre-pandemic numbers.

Apprentices like Zahraa, who I met at a factory in Brisbane. 

Zahraa’s part of a growing group of women in the clean energy industry. She is leading the way for others, having created a peer support network.

And there’s Jill, who is one of about 40,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have enrolled in Free TAFE. I met Jill on Thursday Island, as she was about to get back on a plane to work as a child care educator in her community. 

As the Prime Minister said at Garma, we want to ensure remote communities have access to the benefits of TAFE.

That's where our $31 million Mobile TAFE program comes in - a partnership with Aboriginal community controlled organisations to deliver the skills people want - and that their communities need.

Jackie, Zahraa and Jill are all making their own contributions, on their own terms.

Building their careers, building our nation.

Our work since coming to government has laid solid foundations, addressing urgent skills needs and opening up more opportunities to more Australians.

To build on this, I’m focused on the three key priorities I mentioned earlier.

Equally valuing VET.

Supporting lifelong learning. 

Strengthening the partnerships we’ve established.

When I refer to valuing VET, I am concerned that in Australia we don’t have what Professor Barney Glover refers to as parity of esteem between the tertiary pathways.

We should.

Nine out of ten new jobs will require some form of tertiary education, approximately half VET and half higher education.

Right now, we aren’t on track to match qualifications to job requirements.

We need to change this.

By saying that VET does not mean ‘plan B’.

Because it’s not, and it can’t be.

VET is a key driver of national productivity and of individual opportunity - I’ve heard so many inspiring stories in this regard.

Like that of Matt, last year’s Apprentice of the Year.

While he was studying biomedicine at uni he worked at a butcher’s. He made the choice to pursue butchery through an apprenticeship and he’s not looking back.

Celebrating Matt’s achievements sends that message, as does recognising our amazing Skillaroos, a team of Australia’s best apprentices and trainees.

Free TAFE sends that message too, as does work on valuing the apprenticeship pathway.

So too cleaning out the dodgy operators who have undermined the sector.

And valuing the teachers and trainers who really are our VET system.

Every time I visit a TAFE, I meet passionate teachers - deeply connected to their industries and committed to training the next generation.

That’s why I’m pleased to announce today a $30 million investment in our VET trainer workforce. This will grow the number of electrical and construction VET teachers and the number of First Nations VET teachers. 

As Jason Clare said last week at the AFR Higher Education Summit, we will only achieve the national goal of four in five Australians holding a TAFE qualification or a university degree if we break down that artificial barrier between vocational and higher education.

A barrier to meeting the needs of our modern economy, and that contributes to skills mismatches and shortages in critical areas.

There is an important role in this work for the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, but also through partnerships with academia, unions and industry. 

That’s why Jason Clare, Amanda Rishworth and I brought together experts at a tertiary education roundtable just a few weeks ago. 

ATEC has been tasked with leading the development of a Tertiary Roadmap to identify the next steps to make it easier for students to move between TAFE and university and set up the system to support students to gain qualifications matched to Australia’s future skills needs.

In the meantime, we’ve started on accelerating self-accreditation for TAFE.

Put simply: this means getting more skills into the labour market sooner.

This year a pilot saw three providers develop and accredit a VET course, tailored to its local labour market, in less than six months.

Like the Diploma in Digital Innovation delivered by Bendigo Kangan TAFE.

There is an opportunity here to have our TAFE Centres of Excellence – which partner with universities and industry – drive this acceleration.

There are now 12 Centres, focused on areas like modern forms of housing construction, clean energy, and early childhood education and care.

These Centres are tertiary harmonisation in action. 

Partnerships led by states and territories and between TAFEs, universities and industry to develop the skills and qualifications to enable us to shape our key priorities.

This is making tangible our ambitions for the National TAFE Network – another driver of productivity, as we better share understandings around the country.

And we need to think about how we better engage Australians in conversations about their careers.

The House of Representatives Inquiry into the Perceptions and Status of VET, chaired by Lisa Chesters, provides many useful insights as to how we can, in practical ways, better value VET in this critical context.

So we now have good material to work with – the data JSA has, showing where opportunity lies. 

And the capacities of the Jobs and Skills Councils to inform careers conversations, bringing industry into the picture more effectively. 

The broad consensus from participants at the Economic Reform Roundtable around the JSCs’ roles demonstrates the importance and potential of these tripartite bodies to reshape how we support people into jobs and through careers.

Lifelong learning is fundamental to my approach to skills and training. 

It’s the concept that knits together how we should be thinking about supporting people to navigate a changing world, on their terms.

Moving beyond a narrow sense of equipping a person to perform a role – because jobs are changing, and we know that people can now expect to move between industries, not simply between employers.

Exploring all options – the theme of this National Skills Week.

Including valuing the informal learning that people gain through experiences, as well as understandings gained outside of this country by migrants.

It is how we keep more people better connected to work and the benefits – not only economic, but social too – that come with it.

In the context of generative AI, and indeed more generally, we are witnessing changes in demand for skills and should anticipate this accelerating. We should also be looking to engage workers effectively in this process of change, to realise its benefits.

So I agree with the OECD’s assessment that this ‘calls for upskilling approaches that are fast, targeted and accessible to everyone - not just those in formal education’.

Approaches like our expanded Skills for Education and Employment program, which recognises that we need a broader approach to building foundation skills. 

There’s also our approach to fast tracking the qualifications of six thousand tradespeople.

Master Builders research tells us that for every new qualified tradie, an additional 2.4 houses can be built every year.

We recognise there are workers who have the experience, are ready to step up – but haven’t been able to get qualifications.

Provided they can demonstrate they have the level of competency needed, they shouldn’t be prevented from getting recognised sooner.

Similarly, there is work underway, and more work to be progressed, to ensure that migrants who are here can work to their potential – and that those coming here can get to work more efficiently. 

Too many have been held back from making their contributions to this country.

Recognition of prior learning has been given a bad name by dodgy operators and a failure to tackle their behaviour.

But our focus on effective regulation and enforcement means we can see more Australians recognised for the skills they possess. 

With the states, we have created new standards for VET qualifications to improve quality, simplify course designs and reduce complexity. 

This represents a shift away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to qualification design and a step towards lifting the relevance and value of VET qualifications for students and employers.

This is important to enabling a joined up tertiary system, to valuing lifelong learning, and to productivity.

The final theme I want to touch on is partnerships with purpose.

Skilling Australia’s Future is a shared enterprise.

Necessarily so: both because governmental responsibilities are diffuse, and because in workplaces and communities around the country there are lessons to be learned.

We need more investment in skills – indeed, in the sort of lifetime learning I’ve just spoken of – from our businesses.

And more engagement in skills matching, reskilling and upskilling more generally.

That’s how we maximise the benefits of technology, and maximise the contributions of Australians.

Such as through the commitment of Economic Roundtable participants last week to work with industry and unions on digital and AI skills, guided by a number of recommendations made in the JSA AI report.

How we get productivity moving, and shape a labour market that’s fit for the future.

I’m thinking about the next National Skills Agreement and making the most of Free TAFE beyond 2026.

And more broadly, to seek to build on the systems we have developed so that they are as resilient and adaptable as the learners and workers they need to support.

Taking us back to first principles – how can we best bring out the talent in Australians, and how can we align this with our national goals?

Building consensus – around what it is we are seeking to achieve, and then how we should go about this, together.

Working with the states and territories, unions, employers, students and educators.

To solve the next problem, not the last one.

We are a big country with extraordinary natural advantages.

But it is people who make Australia.

Who tell our national story in distinct and diverse voices.

What makes us unique isn't just the landscape – it is that we have the understanding and knowledge of the world’s oldest continuing cultures, and the perspectives of every culture on the planet.

This diversity is such a strength.

That we need to realise.

To enable the jobs of the future, and secure, satisfying future careers for those doing them.

To set in place the systems, and the partnerships to open more doors to more opportunities, and support a common purpose.

Now is a time for Manning Clark’s ‘enlargers’.

Recognising the opportunities we can give to people to expand their horizons.

And our prospects.

Because relying on luck is no plan for a fairer and better future.

Nor is washing our hands of responsibility – which is the Liberals’ approach.

As set out by Sussan Ley in opposition to the Free TAFE legislation.

In asserting the Liberal principle that, if you don’t pay for something, you don’t value it, she made clear their approach when it comes to preparing Australia to face the future.

The Liberals continue to say to Australians – you’re on your own.

That aspiration should be confined by circumstances.

And that, somehow, we can secure our future without giving everyone a stake in it.

So, that’s the choice before us.

We can choose to invest in people, in skills, and in the future – or we can fall behind.

This Albanese Labor Government chooses to invest.

To take responsibility.

To seek to shape our future, not simply to submit to the forces around us.

We choose to believe in the capacities of every Australian.

In how good we can be when we support everyone to fulfil their potential, and make their contribution.

We can secure Australia’s future through committing to skilling Australians.

Nation-building.

Thank you.