The federal government’s plan to train, retrain or upskill Australians and tackle skills shortages is showing results with all 180,000 Fee-Free places filled within six months.
New figures show Fee-Free TAFE enrolments have hit more than 214,300 in the first six months of the year – six months earlier than anticipated and nearly 35,000 places more than expected.
Enrolments are particularly strong in construction attracting 20,987 enrolments (9.8 per cent).
Women make up the majority (60.2 per cent) of enrolments, with nearly 130,000 women taking on a qualification under the program.
The government expects to announce the next tranche of Fee-Free training places for 2024 in coming weeks.
Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said in six months the government has smashed the target of 180,000 Fee-Free enrolments by almost 35,000 places.
Minister for Skills and Training, Brendan O’Connor, said Australia is making progress on easing the skills shortage since the pandemic.
“Fee-Free TAFE is the spark that is igniting a renewed sense of optimism and potential in our vocational education and training sector and I’m looking forward to building on our success,” he said.
“Next year, we’re building on that. Pending negotiations with states and territories, the Commonwealth will invest more than $400 million to provide another ¬ 300,000 Fee-Free TAFE places from 2024.
“When we came into government last year, the OECD said that Australia had the second highest labour shortage per capita among the OECD.
“The 2022 Skills Priority list revealed the number of occupations suffering skills shortages had almost doubled, jumping from 153 occupations in 2021 to 286.”
Out of the top 20 occupations in demand nationally, almost half have direct VET pathways including six occupations in the top 10.
Earlier this year the government expanded the Priority List from 77 to 111 allowing more apprentices to get direct payments of up to $5,000.