Shared vision, equal pathways: Inquiry into the perceptions and status of vocational education and training found the VET sector will continue to ensure Australia’s workforce has the necessary skills to meet current and future social, economic, and environmental challenges and opportunities. However, both students and employers lack reliable information on VET, often leading to negative perceptions of the sector.

Developed by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education, and Training, the inquiry found perceptions are often driven by poor understanding of VET and by policy decisions and media representations that reinforce the belief that university is necessary for personal and professional success.

Committee Chair, Federal Member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters, said relevant information and stronger marketing is important to dispelling negative perceptions, but the broader VET system also needs improving.

“High-quality VET is crucial to skilling Australians for an increasingly dynamic economy and labour market. Unfortunately, many people do not fully understand the VET sector or the careers to which it leads, and many still consider VET a less valuable or rewarding pathway compared to university,” she said.

“Governments at all levels must ensure access to reliable, accurate information on VET and actively promote the sector and the fantastic opportunities that it offers.

“However, information and marketing efforts will not on their own be sufficient to address negative perceptions of VET.

“Tangible improvements to the sector must also be made to ensure the quality and relevance of training, and that the sector is subject to robust regulatory, governance, and funding arrangements.”

Among its recommendations, the final report emphasises that strategic partnerships between providers, employers, and other key stakeholders should be supported, as should cooperative arrangements with other sectors such as the employment services system.

Recommendations

The Committee made 34 recommendations designed to address poor perceptions of the sector and enhance the quality of and access to VET pathways. These include:

• Significantly overhaul the functions of the National Careers Institute.
• Developing a national careers education strategy for secondary schools.
• Improving VET delivered to secondary school students via cooperative partnerships and increased school funding.
• Rationalising the development and implementation of VET qualifications.
• Addressing systemic barriers to women’s participation in VET, with a focus on eliminating gender-based violence and workplace discrimination and challenging gender stereotypes.
• Enhancing apprenticeships, including by piloting a network of industry-led apprenticeship support providers, lifting pay and conditions, and exploring new apprenticeship pathways.
• Creating a robust framework for developing, implementing, and funding micro-credentials.
• Implementing measures to attract and retain a VET workforce with industry expertise and a greater range of pedagogical competencies.
• Defining a clear roadmap to a genuinely integrated tertiary education system.

Victorian Chamber advocacy

Last year, following feedback that a lack of adequate career services is having a negative impact on the labour market, the Victorian Chamber undertook a careers campaign that identified 29 recommendations to improve the future of careers services nationally.

Pleasingly, many of the views and recommendations in our Career Services Policy Paper were echoed by the inquiry. These include reforming the National Careers Institute so teachers and career professionals in schools are better equipped to talk about VET pathways; better use of alumni programs to inform current students; a national strategy for careers in schools; clearer guidance on micro-credentials; better promotion of women in non-traditional trades; and increased targeted mentoring programs.

The full Shared vision, equal pathways report and further information about the inquiry is available on the inquiry website.