The Business Council of Australia today urged the states and the Commonwealth to reach agreement on the seven-year strategic plan for vocational education and training.

BCA Chief Executive, Ms Katie Lahey, said she looked forward to the Ministerial Council, including the states, endorsing and implementing the Australian National Training Authority’s National Strategy for Vocational Education and Training following their meeting on Friday.

“From a business perspective, addressing skill shortages and re-training older workers and people returning to work are fuel for economic growth.

“Both the strategic plan and the federal government’s three-year funding proposal give these areas a strong national focus,” she said.

“Vocational education and training is an essential tool for skilling our workforce. National companies want a nationally driven training strategy that ensures the quality of outcomes are consistent across state boundaries.

“Quality provision of training through both public and private providers coupled with user choice will ultimately support internationally recognised excellence and efficient provision of workforce training.

“By continuing to develop a competitive and open training market, the ANTA plan will help alleviate the skills shortage within industry.

“Any move to fragment our training sector will lead to inefficiencies and risks our global competitiveness,” Ms Lahey said.

Ms Lahey added that the BCA would be concerned by any reduction in funding for the training sector and supports the maintenance of indexation for the next funding period.