Skills and workforce development

In 2016‑17, the Commonwealth will provide funding of $2.0 billion to support State skills and workforce development services, including $1.5 billion through the National Skills and Workforce Development SPP and $516.3 million through National Partnership payments, as detailed in Table 2.6.

National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development

The National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development identifies the long term objectives of the Commonwealth and the States in the areas of skills and workforce development, and recognises the interest of all governments in ensuring the skills of the Australian people are developed and utilised in the economy.

The Agreement seeks to deliver a vocational education and training (VET) system with improved quality and greater transparency for students, employers and governments, greater access to training opportunities, improved outcomes for disadvantaged students, and greater efficiency.

The reforms needed to achieve the objectives and outcomes of this Agreement include reforming training to achieve a more demand driven and client focused system, and driving the next wave of innovation and productivity.

The National Skills and Workforce Development SPP is the funding associated with the National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development and is provided to work towards increasing the skill levels of all Australians.

The Intergovernmental Agreement defines the growth factor for the National Skills and Workforce Development SPP as:

• (0.85 × Wage Cost Index 1) + (0.15 × Wage Cost Index 6).

The growth factor is estimated to be 1.42 per cent in 2016‑17.

National Partnership payments for skills and workforce development

In addition to the National Skills and Workforce Development SPP, the Commonwealth will provide funding through National Partnerships as detailed below.

The Commonwealth is providing funding for Building Australia's Future Workforce —National Partnership on skills reform, to progress reforms of the VET sector. The agreed reforms aim to create:

• accessible training for working age Australians and, in particular, a more equitable training system, which provides greater opportunities for participation in education and training;
• a transparent VET sector, which enables better understanding of the VET activity that is occurring in each jurisdiction;
• a higher quality VET sector, which delivers learning experiences and qualifications that are relevant to individuals, employers and industry; and
• a more efficient VET sector, which is responsive to the needs of students, employers and industry.

The Commonwealth has provided funding for the National Partnership on the joint group training programme. This National Partnership supported group training organisations to deliver strategies and initiatives to improve Australian apprenticeship commencements and completions.

The Commonwealth has provided funding for the National Partnership on TAFE fee waivers for childcare qualifications. This National Partnership removed fees for the Diploma and Advanced Diploma of Children's Services courses delivered at TAFE institutions, or by other government funded VET providers, for training undertaken up to December 2014.