Investing now to create a high‑skilled workforce
The Government has a strong record in delivering reform to lift the level of skills and the workforce participation of Australians.
In this Budget, the Government will continue to improve its investment in the skills of Australians — to secure prosperity and build opportunity.
A skilled workforce will underpin the continued prosperity of the Australian economy.
Encouraging participation in work and training is vital to meeting the labour demands of Australia's strong economy.
Investing in training to support growth
Given the strength of our economy, it is critical that we increase skill levels in order to meet strong labour demand and keep our economy growing. That is why the Government is ensuring we get maximum value out of our investment in skills, by:
- placing industry at the heart of the training effort — investing $558 million in a National Workforce Development Fund, which will deliver 130,000 high quality training places tailored to the needs of industry
- reforming apprenticeships to make them work for more Australians — providing more than $200 million in support through mentoring and modernising the system to achieve stronger outcomes
- reforming the vocational education and training sector to meet the longer‑term needs of the economy — putting strong reform criteria around our $7 billion funding commitment to the states and territories over five years from 2012‑13 and offering up to $1.75 billion additional funding over this timeframe for states and territories prepared to sign up to more ambitious reform
- building better skills to support workforce participation — investing $263 million to help people attain skills such as reading, writing and numeracy.
The costs of the package have been met by making improved use of $1.4 billion in existing skills funding over four years.
Providing the training needed for the future
