Australia’s post-secondary education sector needs to be overhauled as young people flood the job market with worthless degrees while hundreds of occupations that require only vocational qualifications struggle to find applicants for well-paid jobs.

Australia’s skills tsar Barney Glover says 15 years of government policies designed to encourage young people to enrol in university have tipped the scales too far, leaving graduates without bright futures and vast tracts of industry without the skills they need.