January 21, 2021
A national strategy between the states is needed to fix the Vocational Education Training (VET) system, which has seen a steady decline in the uptake and completion of apprenticeships over the last five years, a new report has found.
According to the Productivity Commission report, enrolments in apprenticeships have dropped 30% over the last two years, and more than 40% of apprentices have not finished their courses since 2015.
To remedy the situation, which the report says is not yet at crisis point, the Productivity Commission has put forward a series of far-reaching recommendations needed to improve the $6.4 billion VET sector.
The report recommends that the length of apprenticeships should be shortened, where possible, because long training programs are a barrier to higher completion rates — particularly among mature-aged apprentices, who may find a three- or four-year apprenticeship too long.