Since I began to draft this opinion piece, the Prime Minister has announced that ANTA is to be abolished from July, 2005 and its responsibilities taken into the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training. ANTA is currently working closely with DEST to manage this transition smoothly for clients and staff. We are all committed to the world-leading, industry-led national vocational education and training system developed over the past 12 years and our focus is to maintain the continuous improvement of the national training framework.

We owe it to Australian enterprises, individuals, and education and training providers. As international trade barriers fall, and technology brings the world to our fingertips, they are all working and competing in a tough, global marketplace for jobs and clients. I am confident that DEST and ANTA are both focussed on building the skills of individual Australians to support our ongoing economic prosperity and future as a socially-inclusive nation.

Over the past few days we have been reflecting on where we have come from. A dozen years ago, Australia had separate training sectors in each state and territory; a qualification inside one border meant little in another; structured training was limited largely to teenage boys going into traditional trades, and articulation was something taught at elocution lessons.

What a revolution Australia has pulled off! More than 85 per cent of occupations in this country are now covered by nationally recognised qualifications, many of which can provide credit towards university degrees. More than two-thirds of employers of recent VET graduates are satisfied that VET is giving graduates the skills employers need. More than 400,000 people are in apprenticeships and traineeships in traditional industries and new areas including computing, multi-media, hospitality, sport and recreation, tourism, childcare and retail. New Apprenticeships are also making structured training and national qualifications more accessible to many people, including mature-aged workers and Indigenous Australians. Almost half of all senior secondary school students are getting a taste of VET at school and around 10,500 are undertaking school-based apprenticeships and traineeships.

This revolution has been an important element of Australia’s world-leading productivity during the past decade. But we can’t just tread water, congratulate ourselves, and expect to keep winning the race. This nation faces some huge challenges that we have to tackle together with other areas of government and society --- among them an ageing population and skill shortages.  Both these issues featured prominently in the recent election, with political parties and business, employee, education and community lobby groups all having a view. We too have to ask the hard questions – is what we have in place really delivering for industry, for individual Australians, and for communities across the country?  Are we sure we have responsive, cost-effective, quality training?

Some of these questions were posed during the recent high level review of national training packages, which looked at how packages can better meet current and future skill needs.  Overall, the review found support for the training package model but a need for improvements to bring training packages up-to-date with the evolving needs of students, apprentices, employers and communities, and the need for more support for teachers and trainers. A schedule of improvements is in place, as endorsed by Australian, state and territory ministers for vocational education and training earlier this year. This will help the VET system develop and deliver training products and services that are more flexible and more in touch with what’s happening in workplaces in 2004 and beyond.

The hot issue, skills shortages, is a complex one, and as we pointed out in our 2003 National Skills Report, skill shortages aren’t just about training. There’s lots of other factors involved, including market conditions, technological advancement, wages, working conditions, worker recruitment and retention, and demographic change. ANTA has taken action to improve forward planning for Australia’s skill needs, with a new network of national industry skills councils, better research, and use of research, including broader sources of information. Other training-related initiatives include industry-based campaigns to improve recruitment, such as the MakeIt! campaign by the manufacturing industry to lure young recruits. Public resources are also being committed to professional development for careers counsellors and the incoming Australian Government has plans for new trade schools and training institutes of excellence.

What of the longer-term future? Australia’s business and industry leaders are firm in their commitment to a national training framework and national consistency as the foundation on which to move forward. The forward agenda items I see for VET include continuing to improve the quality of our information through better research and links with industry to underpin better forecasting, policy development, and training products. At the client interface, training has to be delivered even more flexibly at work, at home and in training institutions, through the greater use of technology, delivery techniques, support resources and in a more networked way. We have to invest in smarter ways in our own teachers, trainers, assessors and VET practitioners --- themselves an ageing workforce. The LearnScope concept is one of the smart approaches to skilling our teachers, trainers, assessors and VET practitioners.  LearnScope’s work-based, action learning approach to solving problems and designing innovating approaches to facilitating VET has contributed to capability and capacity building of the VET practitioners at the RTO, state, territory and national national level. The collaborative approach of the LearnScope projects has a lot to contribute to and enhance Australia’s lead in setting a global standard in skills and learning.

We also have to be able to recognise small skill sets, as well as full qualifications. We must improve access to, and ease of, recognition of prior learning to minimise waste of individuals and community time and resource. RPL is especially important for career changes and reskilling our mature-aged workers and to accredit the skills of immigrants this nation has always needed to build its population and skills base.
 
Most importantly, we must continue to work together in the smart, collaborative way we have to build a workforce skills base required in internationally competitive enterprises, a strong economy, and a cohesive and equitable society.