Education, Skills and Innovation

The education policy agenda of the BCA focuses on reform in four areas.

School education: Australia needs a world-class education system, but many aspects of its school system have not changed since the 1960s.

Modernisation of the system will require greater early intervention, increased customisation, a strengthening of the teaching profession, increased investment and improved governance.

In May this year the BCA released a paper, Teaching Talent: The Best Teachers for Australia’s Classrooms, proposing a number of reforms to lift the quality of school education for the benefit of all students.

Vocational training and skills: The BCA aims to promote the participation of young people and mature-age workers in vocational education and training.

We need to increase the number of vocational education and training places available, improve arrangements for better identifying new and emerging skills needs, and make the training system more flexible. We need better pathways into vocational education and training, and higher completion rates for vocational education and training qualifications.

Higher education: The BCA supports an increase in the proportion of Australians entering higher education and obtaining higher education qualifications.

The quality of the system must be improved. More people should be encouraged to obtain higher education qualifications in science, technology and engineering, which are the foundations of innovation. We must also support the medium to long-term financial stability of Australia’s higher education institutions while supporting diversity within the system.

Innovation: Australian businesses need to able to quickly adapt to new technologies and processes and use them to create innovative new services and products.

Companies need help to adapt to innovation as well as encouragement to act on new opportunities created by innovation. The BCA has called for a national system to promote innovation, involving better cooperation between innovators, more support for research networks and institutions, and the creation of a stronger environment for business innovation.

Find recent BCA reports and papers on education, skills and innovation in the ‘More on this Topic’ section on this page.

Task Force responsibility: Education, Skills and Innovation Task Force
Chairman: Mr Hutch Ranck, Managing Director, Australia and New Zealand, DuPont (Australia) Ltd
BCA Secretariat contact: Mr Patrick Coleman, Director Policy

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