Australian hospitality could get a boost as foreign workers are trained in their home countries

Australian vocational training may soon be able to be undertaken overseas, meaning foreign workers won’t have to leave their home country to secure Australian qualifications.

The move is intended to mitigate against skills shortages, while also strengthening diplomatic ties.

According to Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor, Australia’s vocational education and training sector could be expanded into Southeast Asia, with an eye to Indonesia and India as priority countries.

The system would be similar to those run by universities.

“We think about how our universities have got footprints across the region and the world, particularly the region,” 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.”

Foreign workers could obtain qualifications in everything from trades, retail, hospitality, technology, administration, health and care industry while still residing in their home nations.

The government is already in talks with New Delhi about the development and roll out of Australian Skills Standards and Certification frame­works.

Those who received qualifications, could then be fast tracked into the Australian workforce with temporary or permanent visas.

The aged care sector is one force driving his change, as it has an estimated shortfall of 423,000 workers across the economy and is struggling to attract staff.

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 O’Connor spoke with Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan last month about a skills collaboration, with the Indian Minister  expressing interest in “skilling India’s youth for the many opportunities in Australia”.

The Commonwealth would take leadership of the program. “We want to have some oversight where commonwealth money is being expended,” O’Connor said.

“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.”

O’Connor wants to harness the power of large foreign economies.

“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 become 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.”

Irit Jackson - 26-9-22