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Smart Queensland - Training & qualifications

2020 Target: Three out of four Queenslanders will hold trade, training or tertiary qualifications

Measure: Proportion of 25 to 64-year-olds with a Certificate III or higher (source: Australian Bureau of Statistics Survey of Education and Work).

Lead agency: Department of Education, Training and the Arts.

Current education and skill levels

The gap between the qualification levels of Queensland and the rest of Australia has narrowed in recent years.

In 2007, 50% of Queenslanders aged 25 to 64 held a qualification at Certificate III level or higher.

This put us about middle of the pack in the state and territory rankings behind the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

However, growth in our skill levels has been strong over the past seven years, helping us to make up ground.

Achievements since September 2007

Launched an updated Queensland Skills Plan committing $280 million over the next four years to:

modernise TAFE facilities across the state
deliver innovative training programs to meet skill shortages in the nursing, engineering and Information Communications and Technology professions.

Challenges

Fewer older people with qualifications: Queensland has a higher proportion of older people without training or tertiary qualifications than the rest of Australia.

Strong labour market: the skills shortages and lucrative wages available in some sectors of today's tight labour market enticed young Queenslanders out of education and training and into the workforce. A survey of Year 12 graduates from 2007 shows the proportion of students transitioning to education and training has declined from 65.3% in 2006 to 60.6% in 2008.

Achieving the target

If we want our population to have the skills to mix it with the world’s best, we need to act now.

The Queensland Government will play its part by:

ensuring more young Queenslanders complete Year 12 or an equivalent level of achievement as an essential building block for post-school qualifications
funding and delivering flexible, high quality, post-school training, that works for employers and those seeking training
matching the provision of training places to the skill needs of particular regions
increasing the number of vocational education and training places available to Queenslanders.

We need the Australian Government to support our efforts, including by funding more university places in occupations suffering skill shortages.

We need industry and the community to contribute too. If you are a business owner, you could support your workers to upgrade their skills. If you are an employee or unemployed, you could seek out the wide range of post-school educational options available.

Tomorrow's Queensland