There remains substantial scope for ensuring the NSW education and training system is fit for purpose. This includes supporting a greater role for employers in informing the strategic direction of education and training across the state. This includes informing both current and future skills needs over a 2-5 year time horizon. Opportunities for leveraging industry engagement include in the development and use of shared data assets, and through collaborative initiatives for bringing sector stakeholders together.

Industry-engaged collaborative training models provide an innovative means for building capacity in the state's education and training system. They support the development of industry-relevant skills. They also facilitate mobility between vocational and higher education. Innovations of this kind are of particular interest in regional Australia, where substantial infrastructure investment and renewable energy initiatives are projected to lead to huge demand for skilled workers in regional areas. Governments state and federal have an opportunity to play a leading role in this context through the continued development of training institutes, centres of excellence, skills hubs and other collaborative models for engagement, education and training.

Other opportunities for doing so include to:

➤  Ensure learning opportunities are both available and aligned with the needs of employers in both urban and regional areas.

➤  Develop a centralised, publicly available data assets in partnership with industry (in line with recommendation 7 of the NSW VET Review); 

➤  Invest in structured opportunities for engaging with small and medium businesses on meeting their skills needs, particularly in regional Australia, including place-based collaborative models that integrate industry involvement with education and training.

➤  Establish industry-specific and place-based workforce development Compacts with the aim of helping employers across NSW meet their skills needs (in line with recommendation 8 of the NSW VET Review).

➤  Ensure policy and funding settings support cross-sector models for employer engagement in innovation, workforce development, education and training.

➤  Create a policy environment that encourages and rewards organisations for investing in skill development.

➤  Commit to the continual development and maintenance of a VET sector that is industry-led, competency-based, and built on occupational skill standards.