VET Workforce Research

Findings and Recommendations

VET Workforce Report: Understanding, growing, retaining and developing the VET workforce for the care and support sectors (June 2025)

This VET Workforce Report presents our findings from the initial research conducted for this project between October 2024 and June 2025. We used a mixed-methods approach to capture the data including desktop research, consultations and surveys of current vocational education and training professionals, key stakeholders and registered training organisations.

This report provides a contemporary understanding of current VET workforce roles across the care and support sectors. It offers evidence on demographics, roles and responsibilities, pathways into and out of the workforce, and challenges to recruitment, retention and development.

Care and Support VET workforce snapshot report (April 2025)

Our snapshot report is based on national surveys and workshops with the care and support VET workforce, i.e. aged and disability services, children's education and care, health, human (community) services, and sport and recreation. Thank you to all who participated in our research.

Consultation

Maintaining industry currency through strengthened partnerships

Our VET workforce research, which is focused on attracting and retaining VET workforce is in its final stage.

Our current stream of work involves co-designing a pilot and toolkit to support VET professionals in maintaining their industry currency, with an initial focus on the aged care and disability services sectors. Following this, scalability will be tested with stakeholders across additional care and support sectors.

Currently, we are testing a pilot model and industry currency toolkit for 12 weeks with industry employers and RTOs based in Northern Territory, New South Wales and Victoria.

Key dates for this phase of the research:

• Co-design workshops and pilot development: November 2025 – February 2026
• Pilot delivery and Evaluation: February - May 2026
• Stakeholder testing: April 2026
• Analysis and report submission: May 2026 – June 2026
  

Designing a mentorship framework for newly qualified graduates of NACCHO's TAE program

We have partnered with NACCHO to create a First Nation stream for the VET Workforce research project to help strengthen the First Nations VET workforce. As part of this work, we will design a mentorship framework for newly qualified graduates of NACCHO's First Nations Trainer and Assessor Demonstration program with a focus on cultural safety and effective mentoring practices.

NACCHO’s First Nations Trainer and Assessor Demonstration program provides wrap around support for professionals while they undertake the TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and it has already supported 40 First Nations health workers to complete the Certificate IV with culturally tailored training.

This important work will form part of our efforts to deliver against health, workforce and education targets in the Close the Gap strategy.

Past consultation

Thank you to all who have taken part in our consultations to date. Your insights ensure our research aligns with and reflects industry and registered training organisation needs across HumanAbility sectors.

• Stream 1 of research (complete): 3 x surveys, 9 x workshops, and 13 x interviews between October 2024 and April 2025. Report available under the Reporting tab above.
• Stream 2 of research (complete): Stakeholder interviews to test key prioritisation of key challenge areas
• Stream 3 of research (ongoing): 13 x workshops, 10 x interviews between September and October 2025.

Project Overview

Responding to the VET Workforce Blueprint

Our research is one of the initial actions set out in the VET Workforce Blueprint, developed by the Australian Government in collaboration with states and territories, to provide a roadmap to grow, support and sustain the VET workforce.

HumanAbility is one of the Jobs and Skills Councils to receive government funding under the blueprint to identify and respond to VET workforce challenges within our sectors.

Overall research aims and objectives

The project will run from October 2024 to mid-2026 and will explore:

• workforce demographics and the range of VET roles and responsibilities.
• VET workforce challenges and issues and potential responses to these
• pathways and a pipeline to the VET Workforce and identifying industry-led actions to support this.

At the end of the project, HumanAbility aims to identify :

• effective and specific initiatives to build and develop the care and support VET workforce
• attraction and retention strategies, including for under-represented groups
• succession planning, including for small and niche industries within the care and support sector, and where there are ageing workforces
• industry compacts and opportunities for VET teachers, trainers and assessors to maintain industry currency.

A three-stream approach to research

• Stream 1 (October 2024– June 2025): Undertake industry-specific VET workforce studies to develop a comprehensive understanding of industry-specific influences and roles in the VET workforce
• Stream 2 (July 2025 – September 2025): Investigate industry-specific VET workforce challenges and issues and identify industry-led responses
• Stream 3 (October 2025 – July 2026): Investigate and support industry specific VET workforce pathways and pipeline and identify industry-led actions