Policy initiatives > Timeline of Australian VET policy initiatives 1998-2023
This timeline shows national, state and territory programs and policy initiatives over the past 26 years that may have influenced participation in vocational education and training (VET) courses, apprenticeships and traineeships. It also includes economic events that may have impacted the education and training system and/or influenced its policy landscape. The timeline contributes to a better understanding of Australia's VET system. An alphabetical listing of additional initiatives that are outside the scope of this timeline is available on the Programs and policy initiatives page.
Using the timeline
- Default view: all events are displayed in the default view. This includes all national, state and territory and categories of information.
- Filtering: use the icons to filter events by selected categories and/or regions. Click the reset button twice to remove the filters.
- Searching: use the search box to quickly find specific policies, programs or initiatives. Tick the 'All' checkbox to once again display all events on the timeline.
- Event colours: events are colour-coded to reflect regions; colours are based on national, state and territory colours.
- Event description: hover over or click on an entry to see additional information about each policy, program or initiative.
- Links: links to additional information are provided in the description box where applicable. Clicking on an event will show hyperlinked URLs at the bottom of the description box. Click on these hyperlinks to access this information.
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Description of categories
Apprentices and trainees: Initiatives aimed at helping individuals undertake an apprenticeship or traineeship, such as travel and accommodation schemes, Trade Support Loans, and fee-free or subsidised training. Includes initiatives targeting school-based apprentices and trainees.
Students: initiatives targeting students other than / or as well as apprentices and trainees, including initiatives aimed at helping school leavers transition from secondary to post-secondary education, training and employment.
Employees & job seekers: initiatives aimed at reskilling and/or upskilling individuals to help them enter or remain in the labour market.
Equity groups: initiatives aimed at increasing participation of disadvantaged groups (NEET, indigenous people, people with disability, women, migrants and refugees, older workers, people living in remote/rural regions ) in education, training and employment.
Providers: initiatives aimed at VET providers, both private and public, and includes secondary, tertiary and the Adult and Community Education sectors.
Industry & employers: Initiatives targeting employers, businesses, and industry. Includes initiatives such as incentives provided to employers for taking on apprentices and trainees.
VET system: initiatives that bring about changes to, or impact, the VET system, either nationally or at a jurisdictional level.
External influence: provides information about major economic, social and environmental events that could impact the VET sector and participation in education and training.
Government: shows the political parties in government over the duration of this timeline.
Further information
This timeline is accompanied by a suite of complementary products that together make up the VET Knowledge Bank. The VET Knowledge Bank is a new resource aimed at providing a collected memory of Australian VET reference information. There are also a number of other resources available in VOCEDplus that look at different aspects of VET and cover a longer time period than this timeline, including:
- NCVER’s History of VET in Australia archived web resource
- Timeline of apprenticeships and traineeships 1939-2015
- VET funding in Australia: background, trends and future directions, a policy paper written by Peter Noonan and released by the Mitchell Institute in 2016.
Providing feedback
The development of this resource required reaching back into time to locate information about past VET policies, programs and initiatives. Every effort has been made to ensure the information provided is accurate and complete within the scope of the project (see page introduction above), including consulting more broadly with a range of government, research and other VET stakeholders.
Where an exact date could not be determined, it is indicated in the description. If you know of any missing information or have any feedback about this resource, please let us know at voced@ncver.edu.au.
Disclaimer: This timeline has been developed and optimised for viewing on a desktop platform.
How to cite this page
NCVER (National Centre for Vocational Education Research) 2024, Timeline of Australian VET policy initiatives: 1998-2023, VET Knowledge Bank, NCVER, Adelaide, <https://www.voced.edu.au/vet-knowledge-bank-timeline-australian-vet-policy-initiatives>.