Photo: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

An independent review of the vocational education and training (VET) sector has been launched.

The VET Review will focus on ensuring Australians have the skills they need to enter work when they leave school as well as preparing them for jobs that will exist in the future.  It will also ensure that businesses have access to the skills they need to grow the business.

Steven Joyce, the former New Zealand Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment, and Minister of Finance, will lead the review. Mr Joyce was the architect of significant reforms to the apprenticeship and industry training system in New Zealand.

The VET system is complex, with 4,200 registered training providers, delivering services to 4.2 million students. There has been a significant change in the skills needed in the Australian workforce, moving from the manufacturing sector to service industries and emerging areas such as advanced manufacturing and ICT.

Mr Joyce will engage with stakeholders across the country and across sectors, reporting to the Government in March 2019.

More information and the Terms of Reference are available at VET Review.

Read the Delivering skilled workers for a stronger economy media release.