February
Why businesses are key to fixing Australia’s skills gaps
Cutting-edge training and education is happening in Australia’s largest employers. If we are to meet our national skills challenge, we must encourage more of it.
$80,000 debt is only part of cost crisis hitting students hard
Jasmine O’Brien is in the second of a five-year degree, holds down two jobs and worries about what her student debt will be when she finally graduates.
How careers counsellors could help plug the skills gap
Encouraging teenagers to complete high school and giving them access to careers counselling are key to plugging the yawning skills gap.
January
Business Council rejects legislating fee-free TAFE
The government is hoping to bake into legislation 100,000 free TAFE places a year, but the Business Council of Australia is arguing against the idea.
December 2024
Why we got it wrong on education and skill shortages
After 15 years of policies encouraging people to go to university, Australia’s skills tsar says it is now time for a reset if we are to address chronic skill shortages.
October 2024
AI greenhouses feed remote communities and educate children
Food Ladder installs AI greenhouses in remote communities to feed people and educate their children about the benefits of healthy fresh produce.
Taxpayers paid McDonald’s $72m to train its staff
McDonald’s Australia and its franchisees were the biggest beneficiaries of the Coalition’s $5.8 billion trainee and apprenticeship wage subsidy, documents show.
Desperate colleges lure agents, students with cash offers
With the introduction of student caps looming, desperate vocational colleges are using unethical practices to shore up numbers.
Student caps not for migration reasons, Senate hearing told
An employment department official said student caps were not intended to bring down net migration, an explanation at odds with what the government says.
September 2024
Banned colleges allocated thousands of places under student caps
Private vocational colleges say the allocation of caps for new international students for 2025 has been a ramshackle process.
June 2024
Teal MPs seek softening of foreign student cap laws
Legislation to cap the number of international students will be debated this week – even as visa numbers are in dramatic decline.
June 2024
Higher education key to bigger pay, Labor MP argues
When it comes to the relationship between education and earning capacity, research suggests more is better.
May 2024
Labor to give teaching, nursing students $320 per week payment
Teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students will receive a weekly payment to help offset the costs of mandatory placements.
April 2024
International student numbers slump as reforms bite
Only 46,570 students landed in Australia to begin their studies last month.
Visa rejections hit record as overseas students top 700,000
There were 713,000 international students living in Australia in February, but a corner has been turned as visa rejections pile up.
March 2024
NSW to return TAFEs to centre of local communities
After years of policy “fixes” gone wrong, NSW aims to give TAFEs a new lease of life.
Have we just laid out a plan to kill the traditional university?
The universities accord says that the number of university students needs to double by 2050. That raises the question of what we actually want from our universities.
February 2024
Bright, poor students guaranteed a uni spot
Aspiring university students whose families earn less than $54,000 a year will be guaranteed a place in a degree if they meet admission benchmarks.
The group saying no to uni: white, male, and would rather be a tradie
The Albanese government wants to get more kids into universities, but a new study on apprentices shows there is a clear cohort with no interest in a degree.
Review to hammer out apprenticeship problem
Only half of all apprentices complete their training, despite billions in funding going into ensuring they do. A new review is looking for a solution.