Forecasting future demands: What we can and cannot know
Authors:
Sue Richardson, Yan Tan
Publication date: 
19 July 2007
Publication type:
Formal report
Themes:
Industry and employers > Skill shortages > General
VET in context > Economic aspects of VET > Demand for VET
VET in context > Work changes > General
ISBN:
978 1 921170 68 3
The vocational education and training (VET) sector seeks to teach courses that will meet the future demands from employers in terms of the quantity and types of skills required. This report, which is part of the larger consortium program, 'A well-skilled future: Tailoring VET to the emerging labour market', examines how the VET sector might anticipate what the future needs of employers might be and describes the difficulty of projecting the evolution of the economy. It offers an initial evaluation of the accuracy of the principal model used for skills forecasting in Australia (the MONASH model) and concludes with a discussion of how best to manage the uncertainty over the shape of future skills demand.