Edition 63, December 2008

COAG agrees on national skills development

The 29 November meeting of the Council of Australian Governments saw the establishment of a number of training related agreements and partnerships.

The agreements include:

National Skills and Workforce Development Agreement

The agreement sets out the commitment between the Commonwealth and the States to work towards increasing the skill levels of all Australians, including Indigenous Australians.

COAG agreed that, through this National Agreement, it would monitor progress towards achieving the following outcomes:

  • the working age population have gaps in foundation skill levels reduced to enable effective educational, labour market and social participation
  • the working age population has the depth and breadth of skills and capabilities required for the 21st century labour market
  • the supply of skills provided by the national training system responds to meet changing labour market demand
  • skills are used effectively to increase labour market efficiency, productivity, innovation and ensure increased utilisation of human capital.

COAG agreed that progress toward achieving these outcomes would be measured by:

  • proportion of the working age population at literacy level 1, 2 and 3
  • proportion of 20-64 year olds who do not have a qualification at or above Certificate III
  • proportion of graduates employed after completing training, by previous employment status
  • percentage of graduates with improved employment status after training;
  • the number of hard-to-fill vacancies
  • the proportion of people employed at or above the level of their qualification, by field of study.

The Agreement also sets out agreed COAG targets to halve the proportion of 20-64 year olds without qualifications at Certificate III level by 2020, and to double the number of higher qualification completions by 2020.

Under the Skills and Workforce Development SPP, the Commonwealth will provide an estimated $6.7 billion over the forward estimates from 1 January 2009 to 2012-13, including $37 million in skills and workforce development funding. The States will deliver up to 1.15 million VET course completions nationally over this funding period.

Productivity Places Program National Partnership

COAG agreed to a National Partnership (NP) for the delivery of training under the Productivity Places Program that will target areas of current skill shortage and emerging skill needs.

Delivery of these training places will help to make training more flexible and responsible to the needs of industry, employers and individuals. Through this Agreement (and a separate agreement with Victoria), the States agreed to deliver an additional 506,750 qualifications commencements for job seekers and existing workers over four years.

The Commonwealth agreed to fund 100 per cent of places for job seekers and 50 per cent of places for existing workers. The States agree to fund 40 per cent of places for existing workers, with the remaining 10 per cent to be funded by private contributions. The Commonwealth has previously committed $1.2 billion over four years for this NP. The NP will commence on 1 January 2009 and expire on 30 June 2012.

TAFE Fee Waivers for Childcare Qualification NP

COAG agreed to support delivery of the Commonwealth commitment to fund States to remove fees for the Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas of children's services courses delivered at Technical and Further Education institutions and other government training providers. The estimated funding is $8.5 million for 2009.

A longer term arrangement will be negotiated by the parties to this agreement for the period 2010-12.

The Commonwealth funding is part of its Early Childhood Education Workforce Strategy.

For more information on these agreements and partnerships visit www.coag.gov.au/coag_meeting_outcomes/2008-11-29/attachments.cfm#attachmentb

For more information on other outcomes of the 29 November Council of Australian Governments meeting visit www.coag.gov.au/coag_meeting_outcomes/2008-11-29/index.cfm

This page was generated on 23 December, 2009