Jobs and Skills Australia has released Opportunity and Productivity: Towards a Tertiary Harmonisation Roadmap, a new report that provides a comprehensive framework for developing a national roadmap to harmonise Australia’s tertiary education system, ensuring better outcomes for both graduates and society.
Australia faces low productivity growth, significant skills shortages, and increased demand for highly skilled workers to address national challenges. As expectations of the country’s tertiary education and training system reach new heights, the report highlights the urgent need for a more connected and responsive approach.
Opportunity and Productivity: Towards a Tertiary Harmonisation Roadmap calls for a coordinated roadmap to harmonise and strengthen the linkages between Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Higher Education while maintaining their distinct identities. A better connected system would enhance efficiency, improve graduate outcomes, and strengthen pathways between education and training, and industry.
To drive meaningful change, the report sets out 19 recommendations across 3 categories aimed at creating a more accessible, high-quality, and future-ready tertiary system:
- Enabling the tertiary harmonisation roadmap. This includes foundational initiatives such as developing a governance framework to facilitate the development of a roadmap, including a potential role for the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. It emphasises the importance of the 2 sectors being on an equal footing.
- Early priorities for the roadmap. These recommendations cover areas where work is already underway such as a credit transfer system and mechanisms to encourage innovative course design. It also includes recommendations relating to Commonwealth Supported Places funding for TAFEs and collaboration between VET and higher education providers on a systematic approach to enabling qualifications that are nationally recognised and portable.
- Medium term horizon roadmap priorities. These recommendations consider longer term ambitions such as the development of JSA’s National Skills Taxonomy, Australian Qualification Framework reform; digital resources for students to help them navigate the system and the creation of a Tertiary Education National Data Asset.
Another key focus of the report is ensuring graduates are workforce-ready, equipped with the skills needed to address critical national challenges and support emerging industries. Expectations of Australia’s tertiary education system have never been higher. The sector must take a leadership role in meeting these challenges head-on.
While the challenge is formidable, the benefits are even greater. A harmonised tertiary system would be more efficient, effective, and transparent in delivering the right blend of skills and knowledge to meet workforce and societal needs. By bridging the gap between the VET and higher education sectors, the system will become more connected, responsive, and capable of adapting to the evolving demands of students and industry.
Find out more by reading the full report on the Jobs and Skills Australia website.
For media enquiries please contact media@jobsandskills.gov.au.
