Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor has made an opening bid of an additional $3.7 billion for a new agreement to fund vocational training, bringing to a record high $11.7 billion the amount the government would contribute over five years.

There was “no binary choice” to be made between funding training and skilled migration, Mr O’Connor told the ABC program Insiders, adding that the vocational education and training sector was in dire need of reform.