National Vocational Education and Training Research Conference

Thank you for inviting me to address your National VET Research Conference.

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which you are gathering, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation.

I pay my respects to their Elders past and present.

Skills are at the core of nearly every major challenge and opportunity we face as a nation.

And a quality VET sector is an essential national asset to build the skilled workforce to achieve our government’s ambitious goals.

Net Zero, A Future Made in Australia, building 1.2 million new homes, caring for older Australians and educating our youngest. 

The theme of your conference – ‘VET Partnerships powering a dynamic workforce’ - is a fitting one.

Like the Prime Minister, I believe strong partnerships and genuine collaboration are vital to a successful progressive government – as well as to a vibrant and responsive VET sector.

When we came into office two years ago, we inherited a neglected and fractured VET sector.

And the biggest skills shortage in more than 50 years.

Eight State and Territory Governments were frustrated by federal government inertia and indifference on skills.

Since coming to office, we have been rebuilding those fractured relationships, standing up critical institutions, and delivering skills in priority sectors along with support for the learners who need it.

So much of what we are doing to reform vocational education and training is complex – it involves many different people, institutions and perspectives.

It is careful, detailed, collaborative work to make the whole system work together – and the way we do this is almost as important as what we do.

In January this year - with all States and Territories - we commenced a $30 billion 5-year National Skills Agreement to drive strategic investment and provide the foundations for enduring reform.

The Agreement is the first to embed shared national stewardship to provide national leadership on skills for shared national priorities.

Under that model, Ministers have set priorities including supporting the transformation to Net Zero, sustaining our essential care services and delivering housing supply, while at the same time progressing gender equality and Closing the Gap for First Nations people.

The NSA also targets specific areas of reform and action to be taken by all jurisdictions.

For example, it provides $650 million across the States and Territories to establish up to 20 nationally networked TAFE Centres of Excellence.

These centres are built on the principle of collaboration and sharing what works.

They will be leaders in their field, bringing together TAFEs, universities and industry in genuine partnership to deliver skilled workforces in areas we need them most.

They will work together to innovate and develop world-leading courses and curriculae.

So far, we have announced a centre dedicated to advancing clean energy skills in Western Australia and an Electrical Vehicle Centre of Excellence in Canberra – with more soon to follow.

We are a government that also understands that facts matter, and empirical evidence is fundamental to good leadership.

That is why we established Jobs and Skills Australia to provide advice on current and emerging labour market trends.

And to support the work of JSA, we launched 10 industry-owned, tripartite Jobs and Skills Councils to ensure the labour market analysis was complemented by real economic insight.

Together with the National Centre for Vocational Education and Research, these new institutions provide essential analysis that guides our priority-setting and decision-making.

This new architecture, along with the stewardship provided under the NSA, will ensure governments, industry and education and training sectors work collaboratively.

I also think there is a growing understanding of the importance of VET to our economy and communities, and it is certainly front and centre in the Albanese Government’s agenda.

As I travel the country, I come across more and more people that are recognising the power of VET.

The hundreds of thousands of enrolments in Fee-Free TAFE – and the stories I hear from students and apprentices that have taken up those opportunities - attest to that.

VET changes lives and it is essential for progressing national reforms.

I look forward to working with all of you to that end.

Thank you.