On 3 April 2014 the Hon Ian Macfarlane MP, Minister for Industry, chaired the inaugural meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Industry and Skills Council in Brisbane, attended by state and territory ministers.

Australian government ministers made a new commitment to ensuring industry has the skilled workforce and operating environment it needs to boost the nation’s productivity and increase international competitiveness.

Ministers agreed on objectives for reform of the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system and listed three key priorities for action which are to:

• examine the standards for providers and regulators to ensure they better recognise the different level of risk posed by different providers, enable the regulators to deal more effectively with poor quality in the sector to improve confidence, and meet the Australian Government’s deregulation objectives;
• reduce the burden on the VET sector arising from the constant updates to training packages; and
• ensure that industry is involved in policy development and oversight of the performance of the VET sector and to streamline governance arrangements and committees.

For more information, please see the communique.

Minister Macfarlane’s media release, ‘A New Partnership Between Industry and Skills’ acknowledges the important role stakeholders are playing in building a flexible, high quality national training system.

I recommend you get involved and have your say on what matters to you and how you belive the industry should look.