The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), formerly DEST, creates national training strategies to meet long term objectives of vocational education and training (VET) in Australia.
Three national strategies have set the direction for the development of VET in Australia:
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Shaping our Future (2004-2010)
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A Bridge to the Future (1998-2003)
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Towards a Skilled Australia (1994-1998)
Since the abolition of The Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) in June 2005, DEEWR now leads the work to develop, monitor and evaluate the outcomes from each of the national strategies.
Shaping our Future 2004-2010
Shaping our Future is a commitment by state, territory and Australian governments to develop VET across Australia by working in partnership with industry, training providers and other parties.
Shaping our Future builds on the achievements of the two previous national VET strategies, with the vision:
- VET works for Australian businesses – making them internationally competitive
- VET works for people – giving Australians world-class skills and knowledge
- VET works for communities – making them inclusive and sustainable.
There are four objectives and 12 broad strategies in place to progress this vision for VET until 2010.
In June 2004, Australian, state and territory Ministers endorsed the first action plan for Shaping our Future.
The Shaping our Future action plan (PDF, 182kb) identifies six national actions to be implemented across the four objectives. It will be updated twice before 2010, to account for progress and maintain relevance.
Other national training strategies in place are:
A nationally agreed set of goals, principles and actions to help Australian people and industries make a rapid and successful transition to the information economy. The 2007 Framework builds on the work of the 2000-2004 Framework but also strikes out in some exciting new directions.
A five-year (2000-2005) national strategy and implementation plan for increasing VET opportunities for people with a disability
A five-year (2000-2005) national strategy and implementation plan for increasing VET opportunities for Indigenous people.