A highly skilled workforce is widely viewed as essential for prosperity in economies characterised by rapid technological change. However, the development of high level skills across the workforce is expensive and requires major investment from individuals, governments and employers. This report explores an alternative approach to estimating Australian employers' contribution to skills development of the workforce. The measure is based on the increase of workers' productivity as a result of learning skills on the job. Workers' productivity is obtained by observing how fast wages grow with additional years of general work experience and of tenure with the current employer. The author estimates that, on this basis, total investment in employment-based training is much larger than previously believed.
Multinational corporations are significant in the global economy, and increasingly important to national economies. Based on a literature review and 12 case studies of multinational corporations operating in Australia, the study finds the quality of the domestic VET-skilled workforce is ranked equal third in importance, out of fifteen factors, when deciding to invest in Australia. To make the VET system more attractive to foreign investment, the multinational corporations in the case studies recommended better overseas publicity of the training system, and improvements to literacy, numeracy and production knowledge of lower-level workers in manufacturing.
This volume is a companion to 'The funding of vocational education and training for students with disabilities: Volume 1'. The detailed report of the project is contained in volume 1 while volume 2 contains the appendices.
This report provides important information for those who manage training institutions and are committed to making the learning environment more supportive for people with a disability. It looks at how the vocational education and training system currently allocates funds to support students with a disability, and suggests other funding models to promote their participation.
This report provides an overview of funding arrangements implemented as a result of the 1992 Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) Agreement. The Agreement sought to establish a unified national system of vocational education and training (VET) with joint Commonwealth, state and territory responsibility. The report discusses the outcomes of government, industry and individual investment in training, and includes examples of overseas funding models.