Since the federal government established Free TAFE in 2023 there have been more than 814,000 course enrolments.
There has also been more than a quarter of a million course completions – 258,000 – so far, following the release of data from Quarter 1, 2026.
Young people aged 24 and under make up 35 per cent of Free TAFE enrolments, while 24 per cent of enrolments are from job seekers.
Last year, the government legislated permanent Free TAFE, delivering 100,000 places every year from 2027.
Despite the success of Free TAFE training takes time and Australia still needs to deliver an annual rate of 240,000 new homes to reach the 1.2 million new homes target.
In the 12 months to March, just 197,340 new homes commenced construction.
However, the figure is still 12 per cent greater than the 176,230 recorded a year earlier, according to Housing Industry Association senior economist, Tom Devitt.
He said jurisdictions like Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory have been leading the national improvement in home building volumes and have a significant pipeline of new sales ready to commence.
Meanwhile, the Master Plumbers Association of NSW has called on the federal government to abandon its addiction to skilled migration as the default response to Australia's trades shortage and instead invest in the employers who train Australian apprentices.
MPA CEO Nathaniel Smith said successive governments had spent years talking about skills shortages while ignoring the one group that actually creates skilled tradespeople: small business employers.
"Australia doesn't have a shortage of young people willing to learn a trade. We have a shortage of governments willing to back the employers who train them,” Smith said.
"Every time a skills shortage appears, Canberra reaches for the same lazy policy: bring in more workers from overseas. It's politically convenient, but it avoids the real problem."
Smith said most overseas trade qualifications don't align with Australia's Certificate III qualifications or Australia's strict licensing requirements.
"Before many migrant tradies can work independently, they require Recognition of Prior Learning, gap training, technical assessments and further education. That takes months, costs employers thousands of dollars and places additional pressure on Australia's training system,” he said.
The MPA is calling on the government to introduce a comprehensive Apprentice Employer Tax Credit, including a 200 per cent tax deduction on eligible apprentice employment costs and stronger incentives tied to apprenticeship completion.