Rich and poor countries alike are missing huge opportunities when it comes to making the most of their populations’ economic potential, with only 65% on average of the world’s talent being optimised through education, skills development and deployment during people’s lifetimes. Finland, Norway and Switzerland hold the top spots, utilising around 85% of their human capital. Covering a wide range of 130 countries, the report aims to help countries assess the outcomes of their investments in education and skills and provide guidance on how to prepare the workforce for the future demands of the global economy. Through a unique partnership, the report leverages LinkedIn’s Economic Graph to generate further insights, revealing some interesting findings: Employers and employees need to start thinking about skill bundles, not job titles; reskilling may be easier than previously thought; and countries need to focus on maximising learning both at school and at work.

VET is a crucial component of Australia’s education system and will undoubtedly play an important role in securing Australia’s future skills needs. What is the role of VET and what outcomes do we want from it? This report proposes ways the VET system could be improved to meet Australia’s skills requirements for future growth. Recommendations include: A national review of VET’s role within the broader education sector; more emphasis on working with industry to ensure students have real employment outcomes; and more focus on teaching broad-based skills competency that are transferable across occupational clusters, rather than narrowly focused courses that are too restrictive in a rapidly evolving labour market. With the right policy settings, the Australian VET sector will be well-positioned to meet workforce challenges posed by digital disruption and continue delivering skills needed by industry.

The VET sector has played a critical role in building Australia's workforce over many decades and ensuring that the nation's workforce has the skills to support the shifting economy as it transitioned from a focus on agriculture, to manufacturing, to mining, and now to the service and health industries. This report investigates what technological and digital disruption mean for the workforce of the future. While STEM skills have been given much attention in the context of technological disruption, the research actually suggests that communication skills are more important than ever in the technologically-enabled world. Digital technology will also significantly change the way in which education is delivered, but it is unlikely that the role of teachers will be automated. The report delves further to explore how the VET sector needs to adapt its course content and delivery to prepare workers for the future economy.

In this series of reports, CIEB explores three VET systems from around the world to draw out what other countries can learn from them. It first explores Switzerland, one of the strongest VET systems in the world. Switzerland is an interesting case, as a country that produces comparatively few university graduates yet is one of the world’s most innovative economies. It explores Singapore next, revealing features that set the Singapore VET system apart: Stability, a commitment to implementation, a strong compulsory education system, and a strong link to the national economic development strategy. Finally, it explores an emerging VET system in China – finding that as China embarks on a bold plan to transform its economy from one built on low-cost, low-skill exports to an economic model based on services, innovation, and consumer demand, it will need to evaluate and adapt the structure, organisation and scale of its VET system accordingly.

In 2012, the top 100 VET providers covered 75% of all providers delivering publicly funded VET but by 2014, the market share of the Top 100 providers had fallen to 60%. This is according to a report that aims to portray the diversity of providers in the Australian VET sector in a novel and transparent way. Crucially, the last 20 years has seen dynamic change in the sector as Australia leaned towards creating an open training market for VET, with the underlying principle being to enhance consumer choice and ensure value for money for governments. Publicly owned TAFEs have been the institutions most affected by changes in government policy as well as the subsequent rise in importance and dominance of private providers of VET. Although the project is ongoing, the results generated through this approach have the capacity to provide rich input into policy and strategy processes as Australia seeks to build a VET system that is fit for purpose. 

1. Strengthening the connection between education and employment. The rise of services providing data on graduate outcomes is keeping institutions on their toes.

2. Only 45% in the US think that the point of schooling is to prepare students academically. One-quarter believe schools should prepare students for work while the other quarter believe it should prepare students to be good citizens.

1. After investigating German VET system, Indonesia plans to start 10 vocational schools to provide quality training for several strategic sectors in the country.

2. India announced $1.8bn in funding to train 10 million people by 2020. This will be done through online training at international skills centres.

3. Saudi government launched a major initiative to expand vocational training in 2012. However, enrolment in these colleges has tracked below expectations.