The Morrison Government has released the 2020‑21 Budget, an economic recovery plan for Australia.

The Government is investing in education, skills and apprenticeships as part of its JobMaker Plan, committing to support people getting into jobs and ensuring that Australians have the right skills for the jobs of the future. In summary: 

• JobTrainer – $6.9 billion in 2020‑21 investment, supporting up to 340,700 additional free or low-fee training places.
• New apprenticeships – an additional $1.2 billion through the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements Wage Subsidy by paying a 50 percent wage subsidy for commencing apprentices and trainees. 
• Support for job seekers – investing $62.8 million to establish the new Local Jobs Program to connect job seekers to local employment opportunities, as well as $296 million to deliver a new Digital Employment Services platform that will assist job seekers in managing their own way into employment and training.
• More job-ready graduates – investing $299 million to provide an additional 12,000 undergraduate Commonwealth Supported Places in 2021, as well as up to 30,000 additional university places available next year.
• Short courses to reskill and upskill Australians – committing $252 million to support the delivery of 50,000 higher education short courses to provide opportunities for students and the recently unemployed to retrain in areas of high demand and national priority.

The new JobMaker Hiring Credit will also help to accelerate growth in employment by giving businesses incentives to take on additional employees that are young job seekers aged 16 to 35 years old, estimated to support around 450,000 positions for young people and cost $4 billion from 2020-21 to 2022‑23. 

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An ASQA investigation into misrepresentation of vocational education training (VET) courses has led to a conviction and $10,000 fine for Qualify Me! Pty Ltd in the NSW Local Court. Qualify Me! Pty Ltd was found by the Downing Centre Local Court to have contravened section 123A of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (the NVR Act) by advertising a VET course without identifying the issuer of the VET qualification.

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ASQA has recently approved a further extended transition period for CPP30115 Certificate III in Urban Pest Management. The extended training, assessment and certification issuance period for this qualification ends on 29 September 2021. ASQA had previously extended this qualification for all learners until 29 March 2021 and for Western Australian cohorts until 29 September 2021.

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As part of the Skills Ready program, the McGowan Government has released another fee-free short course as part of the $229.2 million investment in TAFE and training to build a pipeline of skilled workers and support the State’s economic recovery. The new Introduction to Production Horticulture skill set will prepare workers for entry level roles in horticulture, covering safe work practice in the horticultural industry; as well as the skills and knowledge to either plant or harvest horticultural crops, depending on the season and location.

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The AgSkilled 2.0 program is a $15 million investment by the NSW Government to upskill and better prepare the agricultural workforce for fast-moving change driven by industry innovation, research and technology through vocational education and training (VET), particularly in the plant-based fibre (e.g. cotton), grains, production horticulture, viticulture and rice growing agricultural industry sectors across rural and regional NSW. The program runs till 30 June 2023.

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Registered training organisations (RTOs) are reminded that the submission window for reporting September quarter ACT-funded training activity is open from 1 to 15 October 2020. This requirement applies to RTOs with a Training Initiative Funding Agreement, and those that have approved teach-out arrangements under the previous ACT Funding Agreement.

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This report adds international evidence to recent research that proposes reorganising Australian VET qualifications into occupational or vocational clusters will provide extra benefits, including more career mobility for learners and more workers for industry in times of demand. This report examines international examples from countries that rationalised their VET qualifications so they could respond more effectively to emerging skill needs and highlights a series of considerations for the Australian VET system.

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The Australian workforce is employed across 19 broad industries as defined in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) 2006. In total, there are approximately 12,577,100 employed people in Australia according to ABS trend data. Over the past five years, employment across all industries has increased by 6.7 per cent. The median age for workers in Australia is 39 years and median weekly earnings are around $1,100 per week. Education and Training employs approximately 1,084,800 persons, which accounts for 8.6 per cent of the total workforce.

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The following training packages have been updated on training.gov.au:

• UEE11: Electrotechnology Training Package
  Revised 5th October 2020.
• ICT: Information and Communications Technology
  Revised 2nd October 2020. 

This session provides both practical and specific information on the design and development of assessment tools to gather evidence that can be used to make judgements of competence. Links to the recording and materials of Part 1 and 3 of the series can be found on the TAC website under recordings.

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AATIS and NCVER will focus on data from NCVER, the National Skills Commission, the Labour Market Information Portal, and other sources. Australian Apprenticeships and VET data. This online webinar will discuss key data sets, what terms mean and how to interpret the data.

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