Vocational Education and Training courses provided by registered training organisations such as those partnered with institutions Skills Certified and TAFE have been celebrated as providing benefits worth billions to Australia’s economy, despite recurrent underfunding in more recent years.
New research claims that TAFEs create more than $16 in value for every dollar they charge to lead courses. In more detail, annual costs of the TAFE system which amount to $5.7 billion, return enormous economic gain of $92.5 billion, as investments in the sector skyrockets employability and wage surplus.
This comes as a great positive for the Vocation and Education sector as they prove to be a profitable investment when it comes to the success of alumni and graduates; as they create thousands of jobs and increase wages by on average 39%, in comparison to job seekers with no after school education. These education systems ultimately create higher incomes and productivity generated by the education provider credentialed workforce and reduced social benefit costs.
In recent years, the Vocational Education system has suffered underfunding and confusion as to where the actual budget is squandered. With the recent government announcement of a $2 billion JobTrainer fund supplementing FREE Vocational Education and Training placements to help boost the employability of Australian jobseekers, it is a welcomed response to see that the Vocation Education and Training system is being recognized for its worth, cost-effectively and socially for the Australian Economy and the livelihoods of the workers of our society.
See article here detailing ‘Australian Government Pledging to Invest $2 Billion in order to Provide Free or Low-Cost Training Courses’; https://www.skillscertified.com.au/blog/alian-government-invest-to-provide-training-course
“Major public skills investments will be best coordinated by TAFE institutes as the longest-standing and most reliable ‘anchors’ of vocational training and must be at the centre of an economic reconstruction process,” said Alison Pennington, senior economist at the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work.
“By providing bridges to further education and jobs for regional, low-income and at-risk youth groups, the TAFE system is critically important to addressing systemic inequality in Australia’s economy and society,” she added.
The report concludes “Rebuilding the economy after COVID-19 will take many years, but that historic challenge will take even longer without a strong, co-ordinated, public-funded VET system to facilitate job transitions and open opportunities for young workers.”
Vocational Education and Training systems will be vital in aiding the economy’s recovery post COVID-19, and it is hoped that the current systems and increased funding progresses into the future to continually boost the economy and provide a much more positive job market for the forthcoming workers and job seekers of Australia.
Written by Sophie Cunningham; 14th September 2020
