Formal Vocational Education and Training (VET) plays a crucial role in preparing people for employment opportunities, upskilling people in employment, and supporting employers to secure a skilled workforce.
However, training delivery (supply) is not always available where it is needed, for a multitude of reasons, and when it is not supplied, demand for training is hidden.
The Exploring Training Demand and Supply Challenges Project research report has now been released by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, which uncovers a range of complex issues that inhibit training supply and affect demand, including VET policies, funding, investment decisions, regulation, information flows, labour supply, business decisions and training viability considerations.
The report highlights that low enrolments don’t equate to low industry demand, but rather funding constraints, trainer shortages and policy misalignment.
Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) often limit course offerings due to financial viability concerns, leading to skills gaps in critical sectors, while employers frequently rely on informal training due to the complexities of engaging with the VET system.
To bridge those gaps the report suggest reforms are needed in the funding models, qualification structures and employer engagement strategies.
Strengthening partnerships between industry, government and training providers is essential to ensuring a skilled workforce that meets current and future economic demands.
Some of the key points identified include:
- That the ‘multi-stakeholder’ nature of VET has contributed to a complex environment that stakeholders find challenging to understand and navigate.
- Where overwhelming barriers to delivery result in training not being offered (i.e. a lack of supply), there can be a false perception of low demand, which in turn impacts future supply.
- Low enrolments were part of a broader issue of attraction and retention to the industry. Most industries have a large proportion of their workforce in regional, rural and remote locations, so need to attract new workers to both the industry and location.
- Many businesses need the skills and knowledge that formal training provides, yet lack the time, resources, informational networks, and understanding of how valuable training can be to embrace opportunities as they arise. Some of the reasons enterprises struggled to engage in formal training included: having a seasonal or casual workforce, the time out from work required for study and travel, and a lack of understanding of the return on investment
The study also found that these factors are intensified in regional, rural and remote Australia, and that the commercial fishing industry is aware of that.