Following Minister Robert’s release of a Ministerial Statement on 27 October 2021, a way forward for new industry engagement arrangements has been confirmed.
New Industry Clusters will replace the current industry engagement arrangements which includes the 67 Industry Reference Committees (IRCs) and six Skills Service Organisations (SSOs) and are expected to be fully operational by 1 January 2023.
IRCs and SSOs will retain responsibility for training packages and training product development (TPD) until the end of 2022, unless an Industry Cluster can demonstrate that they are ready to take on relevant training package responsibility sooner. However, key changes have been announced regarding the commissioning of TPD work.
- New work can only be commissioned in 2022 under limited circumstances, such as urgent training product updates that need to be rapidly implemented or which are in response to unforeseen events.
- A small number of existing training product projects are due to be provided to the Australian Industry and Skills Committee (AISC) between October – December 2022. The Secretariat will work with SSOs, IRCs and the AISC to ensure that, as far as practicable, these are completed and approved before the end of 2022.
- The AISC will continue to approve updates to training package products until the end of 2022 to ensure continuity and stability of the vocational education and training system during transition. An independent assurance function will replace the AISC from 1 January 2023.
Information has been published to the Skills Reform website on the new arrangements. This includes fact sheets on:
- the implementation and transition timeline for establishing the Industry Clusters
- industry engagement architecture
- the proposed structure and groupings of Industry Clusters
- the wind down of the TPD program.
Visit the Skills Reform website for the latest updates.