Australia’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic depends on the ability of employers to fill the skills shortages resulting from lower migration and upturns in economic prosperity associated with ongoing technological change. The national vocational education and training (VET) system is best placed to support employers to meet these skill needs. However, data from the Survey of Employers’ Use and Views of the VET System show that, prior to the onset of the pandemic, employers’ engagement with the VET system had trended downward over the previous 14 years up until 2019.

This research examined the factors in the current VET environment that influence employers’ decisions when choosing training options, in particular, nationally recognised training. The research is based on interviews with a range of peak stakeholder bodies in late 2020 and early 2021 and of employers between March and June 2021. The employers were selected from five industries with comparatively low engagement with the national VET system in 2019. The research was supported by a review of the most relevant national and international literature.

Key messages:

• Employers train their workforces to improve their businesses. They use both nationally and non-nationally recognised training and view these two forms of training as complementary. The training is judged by its relevance to the skills needs of their workers; its flexibility in fitting in with their business cycles; the expertise of its provider; and its cost. These factors are more important to employers than its recognition status; that is, whether it is nationally recognised or non-nationally recognised training.
• Employers who use nationally recognised training highlight its quality and the ability of registered training organisations (RTOs) to make assessments against the industry-developed national performance standards in training packages and in accredited courses, and that it is mandated in some instances.
• Nationally recognised training is seen as the logical fit for initial training for entry into the workforce and for upskilling in critical new technical skills, those that need to be formally acknowledged or recorded for certification purposes. The challenge is for RTOs to form closer partnerships with employers to understand their needs more fully and customise the curriculum and training delivery accordingly, including complementing other forms of training.