Thank you George and the team at Apprenticeships Matter for your commitment to assisting in the upskilling of the Australian Workforce.
The ‘Apprenticeships for all Victorians’ initiative to create an additional 50,000 Australian Apprenticeships and Traineeships by 2020, provides an excellent platform for raising awareness of Vocational Education and Training pathways and for increasing apprenticeship numbers in Victoria.
I congratulate Apprenticeships Matter on this initiative and call on all employers here today to join with Apprenticeships Matter in this drive to build the skilled workforce of the future.
We need the wider community to understand the importance of Apprenticeship pathways and the broader VET pathways available
We know that vocational education and training (VET) delivers excellent education and career outcomes for both the workforce needs of now, and into the future.
We know that industry and employers turn to VET graduates for candidates with transferable, innovative skills to meet today’s economic challenges and opportunities.
Yet, how do we get these messages effectively into the broader Australian public.
The status of VET is an on-going issue in this country, and one that must be addressed.
Market research conducted by the Australian Government, together with evidence collected by the sector itself, has continued to reflect the need for a sustained communications effort to change the way Australians think about VET.
In particular, we need to create a deeper understanding of the benefits and opportunities that a VET education pathway can offer.
The Australian Government is providing national leadership in promoting the benefits of VET.
On 23 November 2017 at the Australian Training Awards, I launched the VET Information Strategy.
This is the first time that the Australian Government has led a national effort to raise the status of VET, change perceptions and elevate awareness of this sector’s benefits and opportunities.
We are underpinning this strategy with a unifying tagline for the sector, real skills for real careers, in order to exemplify the very real prospects on offer through VET.
I encourage you all to adopt this tagline in your existing communications to help share its important message.
I am now excited to announce the ‘Apprenticeships for all Victorians’ initiative open for business.
Let’s all pledge to work together to make this happen.