Australia's Education System

Contents

Overview................................................................................................................................... 2 Teacher and Principal Quality................................................................................. 4 Recruitment and Compensation................................................................................................................ 4 Initial Education and Training ................................................................................................................... 5 Career Ladders ................................................................................................................................................ 6 Professional Development .......................................................................................................................... 6

The Structure of Australia’s Education System........................................... 7 Instructional Systems.................................................................................................... 8 System Design .................................................................................................................................................. 8 Curriculum........................................................................................................................................................ 8 Assessment ....................................................................................................................................................... 9 Instruction ........................................................................................................................................................ 9 Gateways............................................................................................................................................................ 9

System and School Organization ........................................................................10 Education Finance ........................................................................................................................................10 School Management and Organization..................................................................................................11 Accountability and Incentive Systems...................................................................................................11 Parent and Community Participation....................................................................................................12

Education For All ...........................................................................................................12 Student Support Systems ...........................................................................................................................12 Low-­Performing Schools ............................................................................................................................13

School-to-Work Transition ...................................................................................13

Anxious about the future, they looked up to realize that the fastest growing markets were likely to be not in Europe, but in Asia, their backyard. And their most formidable competitors were likely to be from Asia, too. After centuries of looking to the British for guidance and for their customers, the Australians realized they needed a whole new strategy.

Overview European settlement of Australia began with its establishment as a British penal colony in 1788. For almost 200 years thereafter, the Australians worked hard to bring Europeans to settle in their country, as they felt that their rich natural resources and sparse population made them very vulnerable to their neighbors.

In 1972, Australia dropped its Europeans-­‐ only policy and began opening their borders to others, especially Asians.

Though 92% of its population is still descended from Europeans, Australia has now become one of the world’s most diverse nations.

Fortunately for Australians, the very sense of distance from the great population centers of the West that they had up to that time felt so keenly had made them avid benchmarkers; just like the Singaporeans. Before beginning any great enterprise, they would routinely send teams abroad to see how the leading countries did whatever they were interested in doing and used that information to fashion their own approach. So that is what they did in this instance, putting together teams of employers and representatives of labor to analyze the dynamics of the global competitive landscape to come up with strategies to cope with the emerging competition. Australian labor leaders played a key role in this process.

Australia started out as a collection of colonies, eventually becoming one united country as a member of the British Commonwealth. Until the end of the Second World War, Australia was, from an economic standpoint, oriented almost exclusively to Britain and its mercantile system, sending raw materials to the mother country and getting finished goods back. But the Australians noticed during the war that it was the Americans and not the British who came to their aid at the penultimate moment, and after the war, that the Pacific had become an American, not a British, pond. Cast loose from their mercantilist moorings to Britain, the Australians began to view the entire world as their market, to develop indigenous manufacturing industries and to be the beneficiary of growing American direct investment. The Australian economy took off.

The benchmarkers concluded first, that, because Australia had a relatively small population, they could not possibly make the full range of products they wanted access to. That meant that they would have to be a major exporter if they were going to be able to earn enough to purchase what they wanted abroad.

Second, the path to ruin lay in trying to compete with their Asian neighbors on wages, which were far lower than Australian wages. Their only chance at maintaining their standard of living lay in being able to add much more value to the goods and services they produced than their neighbors. That, in turn, meant that their salvation lay in investing heavily in

Later, in the late 1970s and early 80s, the challenges from the Japanese and the “five tigers”, major recessions in countries to which they sold most of their exports, and the oil shocks combined to produce a major recession in Australia.

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education and training. The countries their teams looked at to establish their education benchmarks were all using standards-­‐driven strategies to accomplish their goals. The Australians concluded that they needed to bring both their academic standards and their vocational standards up to the global benchmarks as rapidly as possible, but they also concluded that they needed to take a decidedly Australian approach as they did so.

moving towards a national curriculum and assessment system over the last decade which will provide a common framework for the country’s states and territories. In 2008, Australia began developing a comprehensive National Assessment Programme (NAP) and a national curriculum; the national assessments were introduced in 2009, and the national curriculum was adopted in 2011. NAP is centered around literacy and numeracy tests (collectively known as NAPLAN) administered yearly to students in grades 3, 5, 7 and 9; additional national sample assessments in science, civics and citizenship and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) literacy are administered every three years. The results of these assessments are presented to schools, government officials and to the public on a website, where visitors can find test scores and a great deal of other information about any school in the nation. Now that both the national curriculum and NAP have been developed, Australia is working to ensure that the two systems are aligned, creating common educational standards for all students.

A broad and stable political consensus emerged on these points. Reform commissions were put in place, academic and vocational standards were created (standards that became the envy of many other leading industrial nations), curriculum was developed and measures were taken to further strengthen the teaching profession.

Today, thanks to the emerging world’s insatiable demand for the raw materials that Australia has in such abundance and the wise management of Australian banks and government finances, Australia has largely escaped the ravages of the global financial crises and is well positioned to benefit from the eventual resumption of economic growth around the world and especially in their own backyard.

Australia has consistently been a top performer in international assessments.

The 2009 PISA results reveal that Australian students rank ninth in a field of 75 (34 OECD member countries and 41 partner countries and economies), and far outpace both the OECD average and the United States. Australia’s science scores have remained steady across the PISA assessments. The government has turned its focus to math and reading, which both experienced small declines on the most recent assessment.

Visitors to Australia remark on Australians’ frontier spirit, their can-­‐do orientation, their practical bent and their determination to learn from others before they decide on their often rather independent course.

Australia’s education system is decentralized, with policy largely determined by the education ministers in the six states and two territories rather than the federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). However, Australia has been 3

PISA 2009 Mean Scores by Country for Reading, Mathematics, and Science

development opportunities; and the Trade Training Centres program, intended to revitalize vocational education.

Teacher and Principal Quality In Australia, each state and territory has jurisdiction over how its teachers are recruited and trained, with many pathways to teacher certification, though all require a bachelor’s degree. Private schools, which are responsible for the education of more than 30% of Australian students, are not bound by state or territorial practices in selecting their teachers. Teachers’ salaries in Australia are about average; although they are paid more after 15 years of experience than the OECD average – $48,233 vs. $41,701 – their salaries are capped at this point, whereas the top of the pay scale average for OECD teachers rises to $51,317.

Australia is currently working on improving the quality of teachers, from new recruits to experienced educators, and on ensuring that the teachers are able to teach the new curriculum and work with the new assessment system.

Source: OECD PISA 2009 The DEEWR has responded to this decline with an infusion of nearly $67 billion into the education system between 2009 and 2012, as well as a series of initiatives designed to target ailing school infrastructures and underserved students. Among these initiatives are the Digital Education Revolution, which aims to improve students’ skill sets in information and communication technology and make them more employable once they complete their education; a National Partnership to improve teacher training and retention through enhanced professional

Recruitment and Compensation Teacher recruitment in Australia is highly varied; each school system directs its own recruitment, hiring and induction efforts.

However, recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers is now a major focus of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) in light of a 2004 Ministerial Council of Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) report that indicated that it was likely that Australia would face severe teacher shortages by 2014. Australia does not 4

provide official statistics on teacher retention, but various broad estimates place the teacher attrition rate in the first five years at between 20 and 25%. The Department has recently launched an initiative to attract a wider range of people to the profession and to improve retention rates for current public school teachers. DEEWR has identified different stages of the teacher “lifecycle” (“attract, train, place, develop, retain”), and is currently targeting each of these stages with specific programs. Part of the “attract” campaign is recruiting the best graduates into teaching from other pathways, including programs like Teach for Australia and short certification programs following bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in certain subject areas. Other proposed goals include improving the partnership between public schools and university teacher education programs, so that the programs closely match what teachers will need to know in the classroom and developing National Professional Standards for Teachers in order to provide consistency and excellence in teacher quality.

essentially automatic. The Australian GDP per capita for that year was $39,918.

Ratio of Lower Secondary Education Teachers’ Salary to GDP per Capita 2008

Between 2009-­‐2012, an additional $45.7 million has been set aside to develop career pathways for indigenous teachers and to promote the teaching profession among indigenous groups by providing easier access to qualifications and on-­‐the-­‐ job support.

Source: OECD PISA 2009 Initial Education and Training

Teachers’ salaries in Australia are based on a nine-­‐point salary range. In 2009, the most recent year for which OECD data is available, an entry-­‐level lower secondary teacher with the minimum education required could expect to make $34,664.

The same teacher can ultimately expect a salary of $48,233 at the top of the pay scale; for the first ten years, pay rises are

All teachers in Australia must hold a bachelor’s degree. However, there are multiple degree paths into teaching.

Teachers may earn a four-­‐year Bachelor of Education; enter a joint-­‐degree program in which one degree is subject-­‐ oriented and the other is in teacher education; or pursue an initial three-­‐ or four-­‐year degree in a subject area and 5

then complete a one-­‐ or two-­‐year postgraduate teacher-­‐training course.

Australia has recently developed a national framework for professional teaching standards, which will affect the curriculum of university-­‐level teacher training courses. Similarly, the taskforce charged with developing this framework is also focused on the development of new professional development opportunities for teachers, including leadership training.

can move into roles of authority while remaining in the classroom as a department head, into leadership roles in the school and in the local school administration, and, in some cases, into educational research careers. Specific promotions and ladders differ between the states and territories, although the pathway described above is typical. Many teachers, however, choose to stay in the classroom after attaining experience and job security. Teachers may also seek professional development to move into related roles such as school counselor or special education instructor.

New high school graduates constitute only half of the people entering teacher-­‐ training programs. Because teachers can now become qualified with a master’s degree or a graduate diploma, many people who already hold bachelor’s degrees elect to pursue the short teacher-­‐ training option.

Professional Development The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) is currently working to develop a set of National Professional Standards for Teachers.

Because teachers will need to meet these standards throughout their careers, AITSL is also developing a set of professional development programs that will allow teachers to fully understand the new standards. This new set of national standards for what teachers need to know and be able to do will work hand-­‐in-­‐hand with the new National Assessment Programme (NAP) to increase school and teacher accountability as well as student performance. Each state has its own previously developed set of professional development standards and programs in addition to this new initiative; the new standards will replace these, and ensure rigor and quality across the states and territories.

Teachers in all states enter an induction period after completing their formal teacher education. The length of the induction period varies from state to state, but typically entails mentorship through team teaching and observation as well as professional development in the form of conferences and workshops. After satisfactorily completing the induction period, teachers are full members of the profession.

Career Ladders There are no specific career pathways for Australian teachers, and a large number of Australian teachers actually view teaching as one step in a non-­‐teaching career path. However, teachers who choose to stay in the field and who excel

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The Structure of Australia’s Education System

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to unify the curriculum and standards across Australia, but to ensure that they are closely aligned. The establishment of a National Curriculum is quite recent; Australia began developing the curriculum using the guidelines in the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians for 2008.

Initially, ACARA developed English, math, science and history curriculum for grades 1-­‐10; they then followed up by rolling out national content and achievement standards for foreign languages, geography and the arts. ACARA is now beginning to extend curriculum development to information and communications technology, civics and citizenship, business, economics, physical education, and health education and design and technology. In these other learning areas, states continue to be responsible for developing their own curricula.

Instructional Systems System Design In most states, students are required to attend school from ages 6 to 15. Typically, students attend primary school for seven years, followed by three years of secondary school. Students are allowed to leave school at age 15 or 16 or after grade 10, depending on the state, provided they find full-­‐time employment. Most students, however, choose to attend upper secondary school, which accepts students for grades 11 and 12, or until the age of 19. In 2010, 78% of Australians between the ages of 20 and 24 had completed school through grade 12, which represents a 7% increase from 2001.

Within upper secondary schools, students can take both vocational and academic classes.

Students who choose not to complete grades 11 and 12 may pursue a vocational education and training program following completion of lower secondary school.

These are offered at Registered Training Organizations (RTOs), which range from Training and Further Education (TAFE) colleges to training programs at private companies. These programs are not, for the most part, equivalent to upper secondary education, but do prepare students for the workforce. TAFE colleges also offer post-­‐secondary training for students who want to pursue a vocational path beyond high school.

In the subjects for which ACARA has developed a national curriculum, the organization provides explicit guidelines for teachers and administrators, including year-­‐by-­‐year guides for what a student should know and be able to do. They are working to make teaching materials and resources available online to all teachers.

Much of this information is also available to parents.

The federal government has also developed the Early Years Learning Framework, which relies on play-­‐based learning to prepare students aged zero to five years for primary school, with a focus on communication and language, believing these to be the building blocks of literacy and numeracy. For students in primary school, the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs promotes eight key learning areas: the arts, English,

Curriculum The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) establishes both the curriculum and achievement standards for both primary and secondary education. New initiatives under the National Assessment Programme (NAP) are working not only 8

health and physical education, second languages, mathematics, science, society and the environment and technology.

diagnostic tests at different stages of a child’s education; in Victoria, for example, all five-­‐year-­‐olds must take a diagnostic literacy test in their first month of school.

Many states have some form of early diagnostic testing. Another example is the examination of Information and Communications Technology competencies given to tenth-­‐graders in the Australian Capital Territory; similar assessments are done in the Northern Territory, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland.

Assessment Australia is a world leader in the development of innovative national assessments. All national assessments are managed under the National Assessment Programme (NAP). While states and schools still manage formative student assessment, the National Assessment Programme Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) examinations are beginning to play a large role in how schools and teachers are assessed, and Australia is seeking to find new ways to create greater ties between these national assessments and formative assessments.

Instruction Instructional systems vary by state. Most schools practice whole-­‐class teaching strategies in primary school, though many states provide ability-­‐based differentiated curriculum and concentrations within schools at the upper educational levels.

Recent policy initiatives have promoted the integration of technology into the classroom and particularly into lesson plans, with the goal of universal digital literacy. Recently, there has been an emphasis by the government on preparing all students in employability skills, which include communicating ideas and information; planning and organizing activities; working with others in teams; solving problems; collecting, analyzing and organizing information; using technology; and possessing cultural understanding. Since the 1980s, Australia has also been incorporating work experience programs into some secondary school pathways.

Over the course of their primary and secondary education, in addition to school-­‐based formative assessments, all Australian children take NAPLAN assessments. These assessments show whether or not students have met literacy and numeracy benchmarks in grades 3, 5, 7 and 9, but are primarily used to determine school performance. Every three years, there are additional national sample assessments in science literacy, civics and citizenship and ICT literacy.

Finally, in some states, students in grade 12 hoping to enter higher education must take an external exam, the results of which becomes a component of their Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR), which determines their admission to university. These exams differ from state to state and by the student’s ultimate educational goal; for example, students hoping to enter post-­‐ secondary vocational education might take a different test from students hoping to matriculate at an academic university.

Similarly, some states require further

Gateways Students attend primary school for six years, and then transition into a comprehensive secondary school. It is not until the end of lower secondary school that students make choices about their

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academic pathways. At this point (at the end of grade 10 or age 15/16) students may choose to leave school with a Year 10 Certificate and enroll in a general upper secondary school or go into vocational education and training (VET).

with the remaining 25% from the federal government.

Annual Expenditure by Educational Institutions per Student for All Services

Students who take a general route earn a Senior Secondary Certificate of Education upon completing upper secondary school, the prerequisite for attending university.

Prior to 2009, each state had its own system for determining a student’s eligibility; this was replaced by the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR), which is a nationally-­‐recognized percentile rank given to each student based on their upper secondary performance and their results on a state exam (if the state requires one). Students are considered for admission at all national universities based on their ATAR number, and are ranked within their state, based on state standards. Students from general upper secondary schools can also enter community colleges, which offer sub-­‐bachelor’s degree programs in a variety of subjects, or Training and Further Education (TAFE) colleges, which offer vocational training.

System and School Organization

(2007, in equivalent USD converted using PPPs for GDP, public institutions only) Source: OECD

Education Finance

Australia also has a robust private school sector, with 31% of Australian students enrolled in non-­‐government (private) schools, the vast majority of which have a religious affiliation. These schools are required to meet the minimum federal education standards as determined by national assessments, but otherwise may choose their own curriculum. However, the majority follow the frameworks used

All students who attend public schools in Australia are entitled to free education, though parents or guardians must pay for school supplies, including textbooks. The government provides financial aid to low-­‐ income families to cover some of these costs. School funding is derived from both state and federal taxes; approximately 75% of the funding comes from the state,

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by the public schools in their state.

Private schools also receive some degree of government funding from both the state and federal levels. The amount depends on their ability to raise sufficient funds on their own.

control that a school board has (as compared to the state Department of Education) varies from state to state, but a 2004 federal Schools Assistance Act called for the states to give school principals and governing bodies greater autonomy over education programs, staffing and budgetary decisions. In most cases, school boards or councils have been put into place to allow for community input at the local government level. These boards have varying levels of power, from the power to advise the principal to planning the school’s budget and completing school budgetary reviews.

Principals are typically members of these organizations.

On average, OECD countries spend $9,860 per student per year; Australia spends $9,056. This represents 5.2% of Australia’s GDP, lower than the OECD average of 5.9%.

School Management and Organization Over the last 30 years, governance of Australia’s schools has become increasingly decentralized; this is due largely to the increased belief that school autonomy leads to better responsiveness to problems and to higher quality overall.

Private schools are almost wholly self-­‐ run, though, like government schools, they are required to participate in NAPLAN.

Within schools, principals for the most part have a great deal of responsibility.

They are in charge of educational leadership and school management, and are also the accountable body to the educational authorities and school stakeholders.

The federal government is responsible for broad-­‐based policy development and reform; the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) sets an agenda for the states to follow in a manner best befitting their unique demographics. Schools are also required to participate in national assessments and to teach the national curriculum.

Several non-­‐government groups, including the Australian Council of State Schools Organisations, the Australian Parents Council, the Independent Teachers Federation, the Australian Education Union and the National Industry Education Forum of Australia represent the interests of parents, teachers and industry leaders with respect to the public school system.

Similar groups represent the private sector. These organizations serve as lobby and consultation groups to state and federal education policymakers.

However, Australian schools are largely managed on the state level, with the Minister of Education in each state or territory responsible for determining teacher training requirements, student enrollment policies and school-­‐based assessments. Generally, these policies are quite similar across the nation. Since the 1990s, there has been a growing movement to devolve power to school leaders and school boards. The amount of

Accountability and Incentive Systems Australia works hard to create transparency about school, teacher and student performance. Outcomes and other information is managed through the My School website established in 2010, 11

which is run by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). The website provides a great deal of information about each of Australia’s schools, including the numbers of students and staff, the socioeconomic background of the student body, results from national literacy and numeracy tests, student attendance rates, teaching resources and post-­‐school student career and academic paths.

performance, as well as teaching resources, for every school in the country.

Similarly, as the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has been building the new national curriculum, they have made draft versions available online and welcomed comments as part of the development process. In addition to encouraging the public to weigh in on educational challenges and successes, under the Building the Education Revolution initiative, community members have full access to new facilities (libraries and multipurpose halls, among others) created by this initiative.

Alongside My School, the National Assessment Plan administers exams and monitors student progress on the national level. These include the national literacy and numeracy (NAPLAN) tests, as well as assessments of student samples in science, civics and information and communication technology (ICT). These sample assessments are given every three years and are given in grades 6 and 10, though science assessments only take place in grade 6.

Parents may elect to send their children to any government school of their choice, provided there is space in the school for their child. Parents also have access to their children’s schools through parents’ associations, which exist in each state and territory. Many of these organizations provide a great deal of information to parents about volunteer opportunities at their child’s school and how they can further encourage their child’s education.

Australian educators and policymakers are beginning to use the information provided on the My School site to help schools improve. Educators and policymakers can use the information to compare schools and make decisions about staffing and resource allocation, and parents can use the site to help choose a school for their children.

Education For All Student Support Systems While Australia’s school system is among the world’s best performers, it has long struggled with a set of achievement gaps between boys and girls, students from high-­‐ and low-­‐income families, and indigenous and non-­‐indigenous students.

In recent years, the Australian government has made a priority of addressing the unique concerns of Australia’s indigenous communities. In June 2011, the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) released an Action Plan that sets out a common approach for all states

Parent and Community Participation The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) welcomes an “honest and comprehensive” public debate about school policy and reform, and makes a great deal of information about school funding, resources and student performance readily available through their website, including the My School site, which provides a comprehensive breakdown of student background and 12

to work on closing the gap between indigenous and non-­‐indigenous students.

Several schools with primarily aboriginal student populations will undertake the policies outlined in the plan, which will then be expanded to all schools with underperforming indigenous students.

The plan calls for improvement in six key areas: school readiness; attendance; engagement and connections; literacy and numeracy; pathways to post-­‐school options; and leadership, quality teaching and workforce development.

Low-­Performing Schools Between 2008 and 2015, improving low performing schools has been a focus of the Australian government, which has committed $1.5 billion to support improvement in about 1700 schools nationwide. This initiative, called the Smarter Schools National Partnership for Low Socio-­‐economic Status School Communities requires matching funds from state and territory governments.

This funding is explicitly earmarked to attract high-­‐performing teachers and school leaders, revamp management and staffing arrangements, provide parents and the community with greater school accountability, promote new learning opportunities for students and help schools form partnerships with other schools, communities and businesses.

The government is also piloting new literacy and numeracy programs in select low-­‐performing schools, with the hope that they will be modified and expanded to all schools where they are needed. The government and the National Partnership believe that improving student engagement and academic outcomes will help combat intergenerational poverty.

States are also responsible for addressing the needs of students with learning and physical disabilities. They are in charge of administering evaluations and providing learning environments for these students, but accommodations vary widely between both states and individual schools. Students who are able to successfully learn in mainstream school environments, even if only for some of their classes or subjects, are encouraged to remain in mainstream schools.

PISA 2009: Variation in Reading Performance Explained by Schools’ Socioeconomic Background

School-to-Work Transition Vocational Education and Training has a much higher profile in Australia than in many other advanced industrial countries. All the training done in the system is framed by a set of qualifications that have been developed and embraced

by Australian employers, labor organizations and government. To get most jobs in the economy one must possess the appropriate qualification.

Vocational education and training

Source: OECD PISA 2009

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programs are designed to enable people of all ages to acquire the qualifications needed to get the jobs they want.

job seekers, directing them to qualifications programs in various skill and job areas. The website also includes education and career guidance for Australians who are interested in gaining qualifications but have not yet selected a field. Other lifelong learning opportunities are available privately or through on-­‐the-­‐job training.

After achieving an initial qualification in a given field, qualification-­‐holders typically continue to study to earn additional qualifications. The requisite training is offered by high schools and Registered Training Organizations. The national Vocational Education and Training Quality Framework outlines standards for all training organizations.

Upper secondary school students can take vocational classes at comprehensive upper secondary schools. About 40% of Australian students take at least one VET subject in secondary school, while 7% of young people are involved in apprenticeships or traineeships.

The qualifications system is regulated by the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). The AQF differs from the Vocational Education and Training Quality Framework in that it regulates qualifications rather than standards for the provision of training, and encompasses all of higher education, academic and vocational. Together, these frameworks provide consistency across Vocational Education and Training programs in Australia, so that employers know what credentials mean when they are offered by applicants for jobs, training institutions know what training they need to offer and individuals know what qualifications they have to earn to get the jobs they want.

Schools applying to establish a Trade Training Centre on their campuses may choose from either a set of approved traditional trade qualifications, or petition to establish a program for occupations in local demand, again reinforcing the link between secondary education and the economy. Occupations in local demand are identified by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). Over the next three years, $2.6 billion will be funneled into the Trade Training Centres in Schools Program. Other national school-­‐to-­‐work initiatives include the NBN-­‐Enabled Education and Skills Services Program, which will help greater numbers of students build their computer and online skills through Australia’s new National Broadband Network, and the Business-­‐ School Connections Roundtable, which has been charged with developing guiding principles for a strong and mutually beneficial relationship between schools and businesses.

Australia’s Vocational Education and Training programs also benefit from strong federal and business leadership.

The government is currently working to improve the status of Vocational Education and Training programs in order to make both Australia and its individual citizens more competitive. To that end, the government has recently undertaken a six-­‐year, $3 billion project to encourage workers to “up-­‐skill” or “re-­‐ skill” by earning formal qualifications.

Part of the project includes a comprehensive website for workers and

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