This speech was given by Business Council of Australia Chief Executive Jennifer Westacott to the TAFE Directors Australia Vision 2020 Conference in Sydney on 4 September 2014. 

The Business Council of Australia sees human capital as a game-changer in keeping both the economy and society strong, prosperous and cohesive.

In this speech, Jennifer Westacott reinforces that a number of actions are needed to create a high-performance vocational education and training sector in Australia, particularly those that will:

• restore the role and status of the VET sector nationally
• resolve roles and responsibilities between levels of government
• better integrate the VET system with other parts of the education system, and with industry
• improve regulation in support of a more dynamic, effective and innovative system, including allowing public providers to operate on a more commercial basis
• conduct a thorough assessment of future investment requirements in the sector, taking account of workforce requirements, population growth projections, and the implementation of the VET student entitlement.