Foreign workers to train at home

Foreign workers could obtain Australian qualifications in their home countries through a major expansion of vocational training programs aimed at plugging domestic skills shortages.

Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor says the government was considering a plan to expand the nation’s vocational education and training sector into Southeast Asia and identified Indonesia and India as priority countries. Picture: Jane Dempster

Foreign workers could obtain Australian qualifications in their home countries through a major expansion of vocational training programs aimed at plugging domestic skills shortages and strengthening diplomatic ties.

Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor said the government was considering a plan to expand the nation’s vocational education and training sector into Southeast Asia and identified Indonesia and India as priority countries.

Mr O’Connor said the system could follow that of the university sector, which had successfully forged deep relations in the Asia-Pacific and flagged the shift would require “significant” federal investment.

Under the shake-up, workers would obtain Australian qualifications in trades, retail, hospitality, technology, administration, health and the care industry while still living in their home nations.

Talks started last month with New Delhi about the development of Australian Skills Standards and Certification frame­works that could be rolled out in India.

Mr O’Connor said foreign workers who obtained qualifications in critical industries could be fast-tracked for entry into Australia and given temporary or permanent visas. The move comes as the government seeks to recalibrate the visa system by expanding paths to permanent residency for skilled workers, a key result of Anthony Albanese’s jobs and skills summit.

“We think about how our universities have got footprints across the region and the world, particularly the region,” Mr O’Connor said. “There’s no reason why our VET sectors shouldn’t act in a forward fashion by engaging, whether it’s bricks and mortar in other countries or certainly being involved in training people.”

The aged care sector is advocating for the federal government to organise overseas qualification programs for ­foreign workers. Amid an estimated shortfall of 423,000 workers across the economy, the care sector is facing an uphill battle to attract staff, plagued by historically low remuneration rates and employee burnout.

A recent report commissioned by Catholic Health Australia found a 60,000 worker shortfall in the sector, and recommended the federal government establish dedicated migration path to increase the care workforce and raise worker salaries in order to help attract a sustainable workforce.

Anglicare chief executive Simon Miller said any change to the visa and migration system would be welcome to fill vacancies within the aged care sector.

“We have had a long-held view that partnering with governments here in Australia and throughout Southeast Asia to provide both vocational-style education in areas like nursing, aged care, and care management is a strategy that we need to pursue to enable a sustainable workforce,” Mr Miller said.

“We would obviously like to be in the vanguard of any plans that the Australian government has to develop education and skills in our workforce through the use of VET training in our near neighbour countries.”

Mr O’Connor said chronically low wages in the care industry had created a “churn” of workers, and he reiterated the government’s pledge to fully fund a pay rise being reviewed by the Fair Work Commission.

“Let’s hope it successfully starts to recognise the value of their work, their skills and ­responsibility of looking after others,” Mr O’Connor said.

Domestic demand for VET qualifications has been dwindling as students seek to obtain tertiary qualifications rather than practical certificates, fuelled by an employer preference for tertiary degrees.

Education Minister Jason Clare and Mr O’Connor spoke with Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan last month about joint collaboration in skills acquisition. Mr Pradhan emphasised a deep interest in “skilling India’s youth for the many opportunities in Australia”.

While VET sectors are co-funded and delivered through a network of state, territory and federal partners, Mr O’Connor said the commonwealth would take national leadership over any overseas expansion. “We want to have some oversight where commonwealth money is being expended,” he said.

Mr O’Connor said overseas training courses would retain a high degree of integrity and rigour because they would be ­delivered by Australian-run providers.

“I think obviously having our own institutions – if they’re involved in training people overseas – that gives us another level of assurance that the quality will be maintained,” he said.

“I would have an oversight over that the same way we do here. Whether that’s here or an Australian training provider in another country it wouldn’t matter either here or there. It has to be subject to rigour.”

Mr O’Connor said Australia should harness the enormous size of the Indian economy, and the projected growth of Indonesia to plug domestic skills shortages and expand the VET sector.

There were just over 1800 students who undertook overseas VET qualifications last year out of more than four million, based on figures from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

“If you think about what’s happening to the economy of ­Indonesia, or India, or other huge economies … (they) are going to be far bigger than ours – well in the case of India it already is,” Mr O’Connor said.

“Indonesia has increasingly becoming a larger economy and will be very quickly advancing and there’s a massive demand for technical skills, and there’s no reason why Australia wouldn’t play a part in contributing to supplying those skills.”