NCVER: Australian VET: An overview

Summary page

Australian Vocational Education & Training

A clear national policy for VET

The Australian experience suggests that having a clear national policy statement is an essential ingredient in any consistent national development of a vocational education and training system. Agreement was recently reached among Australian ministers for training over a new national policy statement for the five years to 2003. The policy issued by the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) — A bridge to the future: Australia's national strategy for vocational education and training 1998-2003 — outlines:

a national mission statement for the vocational education and training sector
five key national objectives for vocational education and training in Australia to underpin the mission statement
a set of national strategies and agreed processes to achieve each of the objectives
national monitoring arrangements, including the adoption of seven key performance measures through which to gauge progress in implementing the national vocational education and training policy (ANTA 1998a).

	Index
	National policy
	Lifelong learning
	Skills training
	Competency-based training
	Industry-led training
	Flexible delivery
	Competition
	Public training institutions
	National recognition
	Focus on outcomes
	Research & evaluation

This is the third national vocational education and training strategy developed in Australia. The important aspect here is the process embarked upon to gain widespread consensus about what the key objectives for vocational education and training are.

Essential elements of any successful national framework for VET should include:

widespread consultations about the appropriate direction to take that goes well beyond discussions among various government officials or colleges and other training providers
extensive discussions with clients of the training system (including industry representatives, students and apprentices and trainees)
consideration of the key issues that are separate from the development of other education policies for schooling or universities so that the work-related nature of VET is emphasised and maintained
the framing of national objectives for vocational education and training that can be measured and monitored so that progress can be reviewed.

These pages are an extract from the publication: Australian Vocational Education and Training: An overview