Vocational Education

Why

Australia faces significant shortages of skilled workers in critical industries.

The top three to tackle first ...

Building

Australia needs 90,000 additional building workers to meet Federal Government election promises of 1.3m houses over 5 years.

Australia needs 93,000 more construction project workers to meet ambitious capital works targets in civil and renewable energy projects including:

• 19,000 project management professionals, 

• 70,000 engineers, scientists and architects, 

• 16,000 structural and civil trades and labour and 

• 14,000 finishing trades

Master Builders Association says 486,000 new workers are needed by 2026 to meet current demand.

NCVER has 212,000 registered apprentices with an 18% completion rate.

Nursing

There are 273,000 trained nurses in Australia and 24,820 unfilled positions

Workforce planning projections calculate a shortfall of:

• 85,000 nurses by 2025, and 

• 123,000 nurses by 2030 

Looking ahead the National Skills Commission predicts nursing growth of

• 26.5% for health and welfare services managers (including nursing clinical directors)

• 16.5% for nurse educators and researchers 

• 23.1% for nurse managers 

• 21.6% for midwives

• 13.9% for registered nurses (including nurse practitioners) 

• 1.3 % for enrolled and mothercraft nurses 

• 16% for university lectures and tutors
  
  

Teaching

Estimates of teacher shortages vary across Australia between State and Federal agencies.

Estimates of total trained teachers in Australia varies by 204,000

AITSIL calculates 515,000 trained teachers in Australia in 10,000 schools. ABS figures state 311,655 trained teachers in 9,629 schools.

The Federal Government estimates a current shortage of 4,000 trained teachers. State Governments are reporting higher shortages (NSW 1,700, Qld 6,510, Vic ) and teacher absenteeism averaging 27% on any school day.

"Yet, Australian schools are facing unprecedented teacher supply and retention challenges, with workforce shortages one of the single biggest issues facing teacher employers in all school sectors and early childhood education settings across Australia. This is not just a problem in Australia. The world at large is experiencing challenges associated with the competitive global teaching market."   Federal Minister for Education - Hob Jason Clare MP - deflecting August 2022

NSWTF reports 1,700 current vacancies and estimates an extra 18,600 teachers are needed to meet population growth by 2036. 

40% of teaching graduates are leaving the profession within 3 years of graduation.

35-50% of teachers would resign IF they could find a safe employment path.

Universities (in need of more funding) are predicting major shortages in 2025-2028.

There is a significant opportunity to establish iCapisce in the mind of every teacher trainee as a valuable learning tool to take into the classroom when they graduate.

Project Documentation

Introductory Slides

Abridged PMI Project Definition

Investment Summary

Establishment Budget

The government is good at reporting students in traineeships but not completion rates.  

Completion rates, on average, are less than 20% of course enrollments.

Outlay

$1.82m over three years for

4 curriculum leads and 16 content specialists

To generate 

7,680 human services topics

440 building topics

960 marine & fisheries topics

And reach

120,000 building apprentices

239,000 farm workers

68,000 nursing trainees

64,000 teacher trainees

Return

Potential maximum of 490,000 Australian trainees per year

@ $20 p.p. p.a.  = $9.8m /year

Target

1.45m Australian Tertiary Students by 2030

@ $20 p.p. p.a.