November 2024 Policy and Reports Update

Insights

November 27, 2024

Welcome to this month’s policy update! In this edition, we highlight important reports and initiatives influencing the Arts, Personal Services, Retail, Tourism, Hospitality, and Vocational Education and Training (VET) sectors and the broader economic landscape.

VET Workforce Study

In October, Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) released their VET Workforce Study, which highlights the skills shortage and provides data and evidence to inform the VET Workforce Blueprint. Additionally, the Study profiles the available workforce data, identifies its limits and argues for regular workforce data collection, as this does not exist.

According to the Study, improvements in workforce data collection will help manage future risks to Australia’s economy and VET system by ensuring a sustainable and high-quality supply of teachers and trainers, particularly in industry sectors experiencing skills shortages and high employment demand.

The Study argues that the VET workforce taxonomy, job profiles and occupational framework will aid future workforce planning and raise the status of VET jobs, including the diversity of roles involved in this sector.

For more information about the Study, visit the Jobs and Skills Australia website.

Revised Standards for Registered Training Organisations

The Commonwealth Government has recently released their Final Policy Draft for Revised Standards for Registered Training Organisations.

The current standards have been in place for almost a decade and consultation with the sector showed they needed to be updated to better reflect the diversity of the VET sector.

The revised standards aim to ensure students receive high-quality training to get them into well-paid, secure jobs with industry-relevant skills and knowledge. The revised standards are framed around 23 outcome-focused standards across four key quality areas: Training and Assessment, Learner Support, Workforce and Governance.

These changes come into effect on 1 July 2025.

For more information, visit the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations website.

NSW Screen & Digital Games Strategy 2025-2027

In October, the NSW Government released the NSW Screen & Digital Games Strategy 2025-2027, confirming its commitment to greater independence and capacity for Screen NSW and strengthening and growing the screen and digital games sector.

The Strategy aligns with the National Cultural Policy, Revive and sets out four priorities, including:

Creating stories
Building sustainable growth
Improving capacity and capability
Developing audiences to increase demand.

Read the complete NSW & Digital Games Strategy here.

NSW Night-time Economy Insights – June Quarter

The NSW Government has recently released their NSW Night-time Economy Insights report for the June Quarter. The Report is sourced from Data After Dark from the Office of the 24-Hour Economy Commissioner.

The Report highlights that the NSW night-time economy demonstrated resilience in the June quarter but was marked by mixed results across key metrics, including:

Night-time public transport saw 35.7 million Opal tap-offs at night, representing an increase of 4.4% year-on-year. This is an additional 14,500 night-time trips/day. 
People in NSW made 464 million night-time people movement activity trips in the quarter and the share of night-time trips remained elevated at 28.6%. 
Night-time in-person spending fell to $3.57 billion, accounting for 16.9% of the 24-hour total.
More businesses opened, including an additional 1,197 core night-time businesses, an increase of 2.3% year-on-year.

Interestingly, the report highlighted that daylight saving time is vital to supporting night-time economic activity and community engagement in NSW. The end of daylight-saving time has resulted in: 

A 14% decrease in night-time public transport trips. 
A 9.7% decrease in night-time people movement activities. 
A 12.9% decrease in night-time in-person spending.

To read the report, visit the NSW Government website.

Rightsizing Regulation

In October, the NSW Small Business Commissioner released their Rightsizing Regulation Report, which included feedback from 1,000 small businesses.

The Report identifies opportunities to simplify, repeal, reform and consolidate existing regulations that impact small businesses across NSW. Specifically, the Report recommends improving the NSW Regulatory Policy Framework to ensure that impact assessments are thorough and consistent and that small business perspectives are considered from the earliest stages of policy design.

One key proposal is the adoption of a formal Small Business Impact Statement to guide regulatory policy.

For more information on this proposal, visit the NSW Small Business Commissioner website.

Strong and Responsive VET Pathways

In November, JSA released the Strong and Responsive VET Pathways Report, which assessed 2019-20 graduate outcomes from the National Data Asset.

The key takeaways from the Report include:

In the year following completion, VET graduates had a median income uplift of $11,800 and earned a median employee income of $48,500.
Nationally, 84% of VET graduates were employed after completing their VET qualification, representing a 15-percentage point increase from before enrolment.
Approximately 8% of all VET graduates pursued higher ed after completion, and 16% enrolled in a higher-level VET qual than the one completed in 2019-20.
Among VET graduates who received income support prior to study, 39% were no longer on income support 2 years after completion (i.e. income support exit rate).

For our stakeholders, this Report shows the real potential that VET pathways provide.

For more information, visit the Jobs and Skills website.

We encourage our stakeholders to delve deeper into these reports and strategies to understand their potential impact and leverage them in planning and decision-making. As always, we remain committed to supporting a vibrant and sustainable workforce across all industries.

Author: Shane Kocass, Policy Officer at SaCSA, analyses government policies, fosters meaningful engagement with government stakeholders, and assists in navigating the complex policy landscape to drive impactful outcomes.