Boosting participation and productivity

Training system for the future

The Government is investing $243 million to drive major improvements to our training system. This includes:

• income contingent loans, in return for significant training reforms
• provision of reward payments to drive higher standards and performance, through the $130 million Quality Skills Initiative
• establishment of a National VET Regulator and the provision of enhanced performance information for students through the MySkills website.

Foundations for the future

The importance of foundation skills such as literacy, language and numeracy (LLN) cannot be overstated. Poor foundation skills can be a major barrier for job seekers and those wishing to upskill. These core skills are crucial to higher educational outcomes — which in turn lead to higher participation and productivity.

The Government is investing $119 million to improve foundation skills such as literacy and numeracy — bringing total Government assistance to around $490 million over four years.

This investment will provide unprecedented LLN support for a total of 140,000 Australians.

Key initiatives include:

• Improving and strengthening the Language Literacy and Numeracy Program will provide an additional 13,570 training places for jobseekers (over four years).
• Better support for the LLN of existing workers will see an additional 9,500 Workplace English, Language and Literacy (WELL) Program places.
• Innovative community based learning to better suit individual learning needs, including around 8,000 training places in community settings such as men's sheds, mothers' groups, and neighbourhood houses.