Under New Zealand’s Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE), 16 existing polytechnics merged under one mega-polytech – Te Pūkenga.

In 2019, the government announced reforms to the country’s vocational education system. The reform will see New Zealand build a more robust and sustainable education ecosystem.

There are seven key changes proposed under this initiative:

This article will take a closer look at Te Pūkenga as it continues to be rolled out across New Zealand.

“Vocational education in New Zealand today is overly complex and not attractive enough for neither students nor employers,” says Minister of Education Chris Hipkins. 

Te Pūkenga (previously known as the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology) will bring depth to New Zealand’s current vocational education system. 

The mega-polytech will bring together 16 regional Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) under one organisation. Acting as a joint network of education providers, Te Pūkenga will be the ultimate long-term skills training partner for learners, employers and communities.

Through Te Pūkenga, students will be able to shift between work-based, on-campus or online learning – allowing for a more well-rounded educational experience.

Te Pūkenga was created to:

New Zealand’s workforce is rapidly changing, with certain industries declining, while others rapidly accelerate. At the same time, literacy, numeracy and technical skills are becoming more important in a wide array of roles, including blue-collar jobs. This means that strong collaboration between industry and vocational education providers is needed to ensure that graduates have the right skills to contribute meaningfully to the workforce. 

The economic impact of COVID-19 also means the workforce requires more highly-skilled workers to contribute to the economy. Workers themselves may also be looking for ways to upskill and future-proof their roles by obtaining in-demand training.

Te Pūkenga is well-positioned to offer students the learning experience they are searching for, while ensuring this education aligns with industry and economic needs.

The transition to Te Pūkenga poses significant changes and challenges for many stakeholders. Here are some of the changes to be expected over the next two years:

Once rolled out, Te Pūkenga will function as a mega-polytech servicing all of New Zealand. This will create a standardised yet flexible experience for students, allowing them to pursue training that is relevant to themselves and industry.

With greater industry input into training programmes, New Zealand is set to see a more highly-skilled workforce that is truly prepared for the future world of work.

Lead generation, student enrolment and retention lay the foundations for a strong student journey. But how do these pieces fit together?

We’ve previously explored each phase in more detail, but this hub will act as the go-to tool for education providers. Our student journey hub provides all the information, tips and resources providers need to optimise their student experience.

The student journey is the sequence of interactions a student experiences throughout their relationship with an education provider. It begins from the first time they hear about the brand to enrolling and completing their studies and re-engaging as a lifelong alumnus. 

It’s a valuable tool for those in the education sector. The journey enables educators to understand their student audience, identify any pain points, and uncover improvement opportunities.

The student journey comprises of three main components:

1.     Lead generation
2.    Student enrolment
3.    Student retention

The lead generation component relies on student-centric marketing activities. These activities target relevant student groups and create engaging online and offline recruitment experiences.

This stage includes three stages:

While students discover and evaluate their education sources, there are opportunities for providers to get ahead of competitors and remain attractive to prospective students. 

Today’s education providers must know how to get students through the front door and best optimise their sales teams to increase enrolments.

Read more

The enrolment component flows on from the lead generation phase. In this period, it’s critical for providers to make the transition from recruitment to enrolment as seamless as possible. 

Setting up an effective post-enquiry contact strategy and nurture program is crucial to streamlining workflow and increasing enrolments.

Read more

When it comes to maximising your enrolments, understanding how to interact with prospective students is essential.

Read more

Retention is an issue for many education providers. With advancing technologies and dwindling attention span, students are demanding more unique experiences from education providers.

 In addition to this, students may find themselves overwhelmed by their program load and the volume of assignments – increasing their likelihood of dropping out of study.

It’s vital for providers to create an engaging and interactive learning experience in this stage, which carries through to graduation and post-study.

There are two key stages within student retention:

Over 40% of students never complete their courses. Education providers must apply student-centric retention solutions to increase engagement and reduce non-completion rates.

Read more

The student journey tracks every step a student takes before, during and after enrolling in a training program. It provides valuable insight into the behaviours and needs of prospecting, existing and graduated students at every stage of their education journey. These insights help:

Enrolment and retention have been the subjects of many debates, both internationally and locally. In Australia, education and training institutions are facing a common set of challenges in the 21st century, such as:

Now more than ever, improving student enrolment and retention should be a priority for our education sector. With immediate skills shortage and economic volatility due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the acceleration of Industry 4.0, we must continue to educate and train tomorrow’s workforce.

The student journey enables departments to adopt a holistic approach to the student experience. It ensures every interaction with a student, from applicant to alumnus, is tailored and valuable to the individual. In today’s competitive education landscape, the ability to do all is critical for providers wanting to stand out from the crowd.

Over 40% of students within our vocational education and training (VET) system never finish their courses through to completion. In fact, students in their first semester are at the highest risk of leaving their studies. Therefore, education providers must apply student-centric retention solutions to increase engagement and reduce non-completion rates. 

The future of education and training is ever-changing – influenced by various external factors such as government funding, emerging competitors and Industry 4.0 technologies.

As our education system becomes overwhelmed with competitors, providers must distinguish themselves. Providers who optimise their acquisition and retention strategies are more likely to receive higher student completion rates and satisfaction. 

Below, we unpack how future-forward providers can implement a student-centric framework to train the next generation of workers. 

The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) states that “program completion rates are an important measure for determining the success and efficiency of the Australian VET system.” 

Therefore as Australia’s primary training mechanism, all VET institutions must proactively measure and improve their program completion rates. Providers must design high-quality training and support systems to progress students from enrolment through to graduation. 

According to Monash University, student retention has far-reaching benefits that extend beyond the immediate learning community. Success in education has social and economic benefits for our economy.

As a general rule of thumb, educated students are more likely to:

Individuals participate in education for a variety of reasons and at different stages of their lives and careers. Some will undertake training to learn new skills to enter our workforce for the first time, while others will study to upgrade their existing capabilities. 

Because of this diversity, there will be a range of factors that influence non-completion rates. In Figure 1, the NCVER outlines reasons that may affect completion rates within our VET system.

The factors above can be divisible into two buckets:

Reasons such as academic under-preparedness, managing the transition to university and other personal problems will be present before entry. While these aren’t necessarily relevant to providers, providers must consider these factors when developing retention programs and initiatives. 

While it’s important to consider when these reasons may occur, it’s also critical to understand who they may be attributed to – not all of the factors above can be solely attributed to the student. In fact, provider and course attributes can also alter a student’s likelihood of completion. 

Understanding these segments is crucial to designing and implementing a student success and retention framework.

With only 56% of VET students completing their studies in 2019, it’s clear that our education system needs more robust retention frameworks.

To do their part in skilling our domestic labour force, every education provider should design and execute a student-centred framework focused on providing enriched and supportive student experiences.

The following three key strategic priorities underpin a successful student retention strategy:

Providers should personalise the framework to suit the needs of their students, staff and industries. However, there are several key strategies all providers can easily adopt.

Establish programs that provide students with diverse opportunities to engage with other students, staff and communities. Engagement programs help increase a student’s sense of belonging, ultimately leading to higher completion rates. Initiatives within this segment can include peer-assisted study support, mentoring programs, mental health facilities and indigenous engagement units.

For individuals entering post-secondary education for the first time, managing the transition into full-time or part-time study can be challenging. Special consideration must be taken when developing the curriculum. Providers must avoid setting unrealistic expectations on first-year students to immediately adapt and transition into full-time or part-time study. 

To do this, providers can promote a smoother transition by incorporating introductory courses, particularly for programs of longer duration. These courses enable incoming students to gradually orientate to their environment and adapt to their study load.

Providers should audit their curricula to ensure there is an even spread of difficult courses – non-completion rates are higher when students face a demanding load within their first semester. 

Additionally, providers should look to technologically-driven short modules where possible. Shorter qualifications, including micro-learning, enable students to undertake study without disruption to their current routines, reducing non-completion rates due to personal or work circumstances.

Providers should identify opportunities for students to explore work-based learning. On-the-job learning ensures students don’t lose interest in their studies and are well-equipped with the skills to enter the workforce. 

Opportunities include:

Financial aid programs can significantly improve retention rates for low socio-economic or disadvantaged students facing debt issues. Financial assistance can create pathways to graduation for a larger cohort of students. 

Flexible payment plans and counselling support services are additional ways to support students from low socio-economic communities in progressing through their studies.

The ability to deliver timely and accurate information is a key retention tactic. In this digital age, providers should utilise technology for two-way communication to keep students engaged throughout their education and post-study. This can include:

The complex nature of attrition makes addressing retention difficult – there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Providers must implement a student-centred approach that is both adaptable to any external influencers and refinable as informed by data.

The UK education landscape is becoming increasingly competitive. Globalisation and emerging technologies are leaving many universities, colleges and training providers wary of their standing on the global education stage.

Simultaneously, the emergence of high-quality institutions worldwide is making it harder for UK training providers to compete for student enrolments. 

Today’s digital marketers must juggle multiple pieces of the education marketing puzzle – SEO, content marketing, remarketing and social media (to name a few). 

The Candlefox Education Marketplace provides a simple solution for education and training providers looking to streamline their student acquisition journey. Our Marketplace – a network of global brands, including coursesonline.co.uk – connects high-intent student prospects with quality education providers. 

Since joining the Candlefox Marketplace, DLC Training has been able to increase total student lead volume, enrol more students and boost overall business growth.

DLC Training is one of the UK’s leading distance learning providers, renowned for helping learners achieve their professional development goals. They specialise in delivering internationally-recognised business management and supply chain management courses. 

Industry 4.0 is changing the way workers approach professional training. Distance learning is rising in popularity, particularly amongst mature-aged learners. DLC Training provides bespoke qualifications to support professionals from all walks of life with their career and education ambitions.

Too much reliance on other digital marketing channels that provide little to no value. 

Before joining the Candlefox Marketplace, DLC Training invested a substantial amount of their marketing budget into advertisers that provided little return. 

William Baxter, Web and Platform Manager, is responsible for lead generation at DLC Training. He says they needed to find a digital marketing channel that could complement the existing platforms they use. It needed to provide them with consistent lead volumes throughout the year. 

“Providing our Sales team with enough resources to effectively do their role is paramount to our business model. We want to yield as much return on investment as possible through the various channels we advertise with,” says Baxter.

The core measure of success in student acquisition is ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment), or the calculation of revenue over cost. 

ROMI helps providers measure the total sum invested in paid marketing activities for student enrolment purposes. While there may be various factors that influence ROMI, the single most significant is a provider’s ability to attract a constant stream of student leads. 

However, lead generation in the education industry can be tricky; seasonality and user choice can drastically impact students’ decision to study. 

“Consistency in student enquiries gives us insights and data we can use to plan and forecast our overall business efforts. This [service] is tough to come by in the education industry – some months can be fantastic, while others can drop unexpectedly.”

Baxter also identified that they needed a channel that could provide industry-first insights and maintain a healthy supply of student enquiries.

A streamlined student acquisition journey and high-quality lead generation services. 

DLC Training first approached Candlefox looking to diversify their digital marketing strategy and increase their student lead volume. With over 60,000 monthly visitors on CoursesOnline, we immediately knew our Marketplace was the ideal solution for DLC Training. 

Our Marketplace helps education and training providers expand their lead generation services by making their courses discoverable to a larger cohort of student prospects. 

After the initial consultation with the Candlefox Partnerships Team, Baxter realised the profound impact our Marketplace could have on their business growth.

“We were looking for an alternative marketing channel that we could invest some budget into and build a strong partnership. Having a channel, like the Candlefox Marketplace, that provides us overall consistency and quality has been principal to our organisation,” says Baxter. 

Implementation was a seamless process. We apply a ‘set and forget’ solution, making it the ultimate low-touch digital marketing tool for education providers.

“Getting onto the Candlefox Marketplace was an effortless procedure. The end-to-end process from the initial conversation to get our courses live took no more than seven days.”

Since joining the Candlefox Marketplace in December 2018, DLC Training has seen an increase in student leads and consistency in their yearly lead volume. 

Our Marketplace provided additional lead generation capabilities for DLC Training. Through advertising with CoursesOnline and Candlefox, they have been able to market their courses to a larger audience and attract more student enquiries. 

Baxter has been impressed with their return on investment from the Candlefox Marketplace.

“Candlefox not only provides quality leads, but they also go out and find them for you. Other providers lend their systems to the consumers doing the work to find the courses, whereas Candlefox will do proper due diligence and ensure quality leads engage with their platform.

“Not only have Candlefox delivered the product and service they promised, but they have gone above and beyond and provided us with unparalleled insight into the industry and suggestions to further enhance our products, delivery and overall systems.”

Discover a solution that delivers a seamless customer experience and nurtures your prospects in every stage of the student journey. Find out how you can get your courses onto the Candlefox Marketplace. 

Get in touch with the team today.

The Australian Government has announced a year-long extension to the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements scheme. The scheme will continue to increase VET enrolments and employment rates among emerging apprentices and trainees. 

Since its introduction in October 2020, the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements wage subsidy scheme has quickly reached its initial cap of 100,000 subsided wages. 

The Federal Government has announced a demand-driven extension in response to the scheme’s success, valued at $1.2 billion. This package will continue to support education providers and industries to enrol and employ new apprentices and trainees across various occupations. 

The extension will support our industries in building a pipeline of skilled workers to strengthen Australia’s economic recovery post-COVID-19.

The Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements wage subsidy is a government initiative aimed at bolstering employment rates amongst apprentices and trainees. The scheme will provide financial support to businesses and Group Training Organisations (GTOs) that take on students before September 2021. 

The scheme offers eligible parties a wage subsidy of up to 50% of the apprentice’s gross wage. This subsidy is valid for a maximum of $7,000 per quarter, per apprentice, for 12 months from the commencement date. 

The wage subsidy is projected to work two-fold.

The scheme is set to combat the fall in apprenticeship and trainee employment due to COVID-19. Our economic recovery is highly contingent on delivering skills training and boosting employment rates.

“These apprentices would likely have been the first to go [in a recession]. Such a loss would have been devastating for our economy as years of training would have been lost and, I suspect, never recovered. We maintained the emerging skills pool that was building, that would be much needed for our economy in the future,” says Minister Michaela Cash.

Businesses and GTOs – the intermediaries between students and host employers – in qualified industries who engage with an Australia apprentice before 30 September 2021 are eligible.

For businesses and GTOs to successfully qualify for the subsidy scheme, they must employ current VET approved Certificate II or higher students who have chosen to complete their studies via an apprenticeship or traineeship in their relevant industry.

The scheme is not limited to a specific list of qualified industries. Instead, the intention is to grasp the interest of a wide array of fields to maximise economic stimulus. 

According to Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, fields that contribute most to our economic recovery are:

It is expected that we build training and employment capabilities in these industries.

The wage subsidy extension enables more employers to take on new apprentices, significantly increasing employment opportunities for emerging workers. As a result, we expect to see an uptake in enquiries from prospective apprentices and trainees.

To capitalise on this, providers should maximise student intake by increasing marketing and lead generation efforts, especially for vocational courses.

There are five fundamental marketing and sales strategies providers can apply to increase their visibility to student prospects.

At Candlefox, we own and operate a global Marketplace of brands that support providers in attracting and enrolling student prospects. Get in touch with the team to find out how you can start generating high-quality students leads with the Candlefox Marketplace.

Get in touch with the team today.

The demand-driven extension of the apprenticeship scheme aims to encourage employers to hire more commencing apprentices. As we slowly move towards COVID normal, the Australian Government will continue to support these businesses to be at the forefront of the push to return Australia’s economy to stability. 

Disruptive technologies and market volatility are challenging the long-term skills viability of our workforce. Experts have called for a reskilling revolution to address the growing skills shortage and prepare Australians for the jobs of tomorrow. 

The move towards the future of work will mean today’s current skills will soon be outdated. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), one-third of today’s global skills will become obsolete by 2025. Workers, employers and education providers are now facing immense pressure to adjust to the changing skill requirements of our labour market.

Below, we unpack the skills of tomorrow and how our VET system can pivot to provide better training for emerging and existing workers.

The world is facing a reskilling emergency – skills shortages are at an all-time high.

The double disruption, caused by COVID-19 and the ongoing digitisation of work, has created a skills imbalance. Many tasks that once required humans are now automated.

Disruptive technologies are changing the core skills of many occupations. Technology-related skills, especially in digital marketing and information technology, will become increasingly necessary by 2025.

Experts predict that today’s average worker will need to gain an additional seven digital skills by 2025 to maintain employability. 

This future of work will require workers to have the specialised skill sets to perform their roles and the capabilities to adapt, innovate and succeed in adverse conditions. As we move towards a skills-based labour market, workers will also need to develop their social capabilities and soft skills. 

Specialised or technical skills are aligned to a specific vocation or task – they form the core skill competencies a worker needs to perform their duties. 

The nature of specialised skills and occupations will change as we continue to adopt more technology into our workplaces. The WEF has identified the top 15 emerging technical skills across the globe (figure 28).  

Among this list are three cross-cutting specialised skills (product marketing, digital marketing and human-computer interaction) that will be crucial to a variety of emerging and progressive professions.

Soft skills are the non-technical, transferable skills that relate to how one works. They are the interpersonal attributes that underpin workplace collaboration and communication, self-management and career development. 

Human-centric skills are becoming more critical with the rise of AI and automation in the workforce. New technologies will place higher demands on workers to manage abstract thinking and problem-solving.

The top 10 soft skills for 2025 are:

“Industry 4.0 will call for employers who possess strong interpersonal skills and a strong understanding of the complex relationship between people and advanced technologies,” says Janet Foutty, Executive Chair of the Board at Deloitte (US).

The pandemic has also heightened the urgency for self-management skills such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility. Employees will need to act more independently and possess better communication skills, particularly in remote workplaces.

Industries are looking to large-scale, systematic reskilling efforts to address our future skill requirements. However, there is a growing consensus that our vocational education and training (VET) system isn’t adapting fast enough to meet the skill needs of Industry 4.0. 

Employers are reporting difficulties in finding VET providers who can deliver the training in disruptive technologies and Industry 4.0. 

Experts are encouraging cross-collaboration from organisations, industries and educational institutions to develop training solutions that best fit the changing nature of our industries. These solutions must analyse and optimise the range of knowledge and skills of current job holders and future workers. 

Our innovative reskilling efforts must be also flexible – expanding to short courses and longer formal qualifications – to accommodate learners of all shapes and sizes.

Training providers will especially need to scale up courses that deliver technical skills training relevant to the emerging skills and jobs of tomorrow. Our current VET market is struggling to keep pace with emerging trends of Industry 4.0, and providers have an obligation to our labour market to fill these shortages. 

The dynamic nature of our education sector means we’ll continue to see advancements in course creation and delivery over the next decade. We’ve created a list of education strategies expected to bring opportunities for providers during Industry 4.0.

There is an urgent need to future-proof the skills and professions of our workforce in the face of mass job displacement. The pandemic has dramatically accelerated our transition into a technologically-driven labour market.

As we accelerate towards a technologically-driven labour market, workers, employers, industries and our VET system must collaborate on a national reskilling movement towards the jobs of tomorrow.

After years of underperformance, the Australian Productivity Commission has set their sights on reform to our multi-billion dollar vocational education and training (VET) sector.

In their latest Skills and Workforce Development Agreement Review, the Commission addresses concerns on declining VET enrolment and completion rates, and the subsequent impacts this has on our workforce’s skills capacity. 

The Commission advocates for an overhaul of the skills-funding agreement between the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments, with improvements across the board – apprenticeship programs, student choice, government funding, and more. The proposal will develop a more effective and competitive VET sector capable of building resilient, future-forward workers.

Here are our key takeaways from the report:

As one of Australia’s education pillars, the VET system services millions of students each year. Therefore, delivering high-quality education and training that produces job-ready graduates is a must.

The National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development (NASWD) was established to guide the Australian, State and Territory governments in the improved delivery of VET services. This agreement was a commitment to a long-term skills reform to support workers in developing the skills they need to effectively participate in our job markets. 

Although the NASWD set national targets to be achieved by 2020, Australian Productivity Commissioner Jonathan Coppel says these targets have not been met. 

“Governments have stepped back from some of the NASWD’s policy aspirations. Targets have not been met and the performance framework has not held governments to account,” says Coppel.

The Commission has proposed a stronger intergovernmental strategy to ensure equal responsibility from all parties in meeting the new NASWD targets, thereby lifting performance.

The new skills proposal follows the same guiding principle as the 2012 agreement  – to bolster the skills of our workforce and increase employment opportunities for all working-age Australians.

Approximately $6.4 billion of government funding is spent on the VET sector each year. Yet, the returns on this have been underwhelming. 

Commissioner Malcolm Roberts calls for regulations to all funding, to monitor and improve the returns of the taxpayer dollars. All governments must show stronger accountability and transparency when spending public funds. 

According to the report, 50% of government funding is allocated towards subsidies to training providers. However, these subsidies are not regulated by the Australian Government and are instead assessed on a case-by-case system. 

“Subsidies should be based on the efficient costs of delivering courses. Having hundreds of different subsidy rates [across our states and territories] is confusing and ineffective… Subsidy rates should be simplified,” says Roberts.

The improved regulation of government funding will be achieved through:

Registered training organisations (RTOs) and TAFEs will be impacted if this recommendation is accepted by all governments. All training providers will receive an equal distribution of public funds and be required to submit financial data to the NCVER.

On the flip side, there is an opportunity for providers to receive more funds to bolster their capacity to educate and train more workers.

We have witnessed a steady decline in the enrolment rates of VET programs in recent years. To encourage more working-age Australians to undertake study, the Commission recommends extending the VET Student Loans (VSL) program to more courses. The expansion of the VSL program ensures workers are continually refreshing and improving their skill sets to meet the evolving demands of the industry. 

The Commission has broken down this recommendation into three actions:

With more student loans made available, we expect to see a spike in enrolment enquiries and student intake for applicable courses.

Providers should closely monitor the expansion of loan caps into applicable courses they offer and take advantage of this by boosting student acquisition efforts.

Contact us today to learn more about attracting high-intent prospective students.

The review has found that subpar user choice has led to low enrolment and completion rates. 

Readily-accessible information is crucial to improving user choice and reducing drop-out rates. Students need better curated, public information to make career decisions. It has been demonstrated that students without adequate information in areas such as course quality, student fees and employment opportunities are more likely to make poor educational choices. 

The Commission recommends all governments, in collaboration with training providers, to:

Training providers will be required to submit the required information, outlined above, to the NCI. The collected information will be displayed publicly on the hub to prospective students, so providers must make sure they provide accurate information.

Providers will also need to demonstrate the ability to improve their quality of services, as indicated by the Employer Questionnaire or complaints received through the VET ombudsman (if any).

The effectiveness of the Australian apprenticeship system has long been in debate. There have been persistent skills shortages in trade occupations, and a large decline in the commencements and completion, 30% and 40% respectively, since 2015. 

The Productivity Commission recommends the following to all governments:

The extent of this reform is still being determined. Providers offering apprenticeship programs should monitor news from the Productivity Commission to keep up with updates.

The Australian Productivity Commission has called for an improved national skills agreement that will pave the way for a more productive and well-rounded workforce.

The Australian Government is currently negotiating a new NASWD with State and Territory governments. We are looking forward to the announcement of a new agreement that will provide increased opportunities for students, employers and VET providers.

We are experiencing a period of profound change. Jobs that have existed for years are being displaced and new occupations are being created at an exponential rate.

The rise of automation, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are threatening the shelf life of skillsets. It’s clear that emerging technologies pose significant implications for learners, organisations and training providers. To succeed in tomorrow’s economy, our workforce must work in sync with ‘thinking machines’.

Economic uncertainty and pandemic-induced lockdowns sped up the adoption of automation and AI. The freefall of our local and global labour markets are leaving many workers concerned about displacement.

As economies begin to open up, many Australians are now asking: What will the future of work look like and how do we prepare for it?

Industry 4.0 is officially here. We are living through a megatrend of technological change. Rapid advances in automation, AI and big data are affecting the quality and quantity of jobs available in our near future. 

As human labour is substituted in favour of automation, the net displacement of workers is predicted to be in the millions. However, experts anticipate the number of jobs lost will be fewer than the number of new jobs created. 

The World Economic Forum predicts 97 million global roles will emerge in newly-formed industries.

New occupations will continue to require both digital and human components. The importance of human interaction will be integral as we move to a digital-first economy.

The highest growth jobs of tomorrow can be segmented into seven key occupational clusters:

From these clusters, the WEF has identified the top 10 roles in demand by 2025: 

Experts calculate 40% of Australia’s jobs will disappear in the next 10 years. At a minimum, 9% of jobs in the current labour market will be fully automated, with more than half of our workforce facing varying degrees of automation.

Globally, 85 million jobs are estimated to be displaced by a shift in the division of labour between humans and machines by 2025. 

Signs of ‘job polarisation’ are beginning to emerge in labour markets around the world. Today’s jobs are being segregated into low-skill/low-income and high-skill/high-income segments. 

VET educators play a crucial role in skilling our workforce in these emerging trends. Education and training providers can pivot to offer qualifications and short courses to train more Australians in industry-specific and cross-cutting skills of the future. 

Research from the Ready, Set, Upskill – Effective Training for the Jobs of Tomorrow report found our technology, media and telecommunications industries are expected to grow by $10 billion over the next five years. This requires more than 156,000 digital technology workers to be trained by 2025. 

The report reveals that three out of four Australians want to undertake training in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Similarly, four in five Australian business leaders believe adopting new technologies into their workplaces will be crucial to achieving business goals.

“The time to act on workforce development is now… an imperative first step is ensuring Australia’s workforce is equipped with a basic level of digital literacy through effective skills development and training programs,” says John O’Mahony, partner at Deloitte Access Economics.

However, our $10 billion economy growth hinges on improving the digital literacy of our workforce. 

There are several ways training providers can contribute to the digital upskilling and reskilling of Australians. Providers can incorporate digital skills into course delivery to facilitate the smooth transition of workplaces into Industry 4.0. 

Providers can do this through three key strategies:

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated our transition into a technology-driven labour market by years. Emerging roles in big data, robotics and AI will create new opportunities for career transitions for workers willing to invest in lifelong learning.

Candlefox is excited to see how our education and training system will innovate to accommodate changes in the world of work.

For this article, we pulled insights from leading institutions and experts from across the globe including:

• Future Now Series: The Future of Work, Australian Financial Review and KPMG
• The Future of Jobs Report 2020, World Economic Forum
• Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained: Workforce Transitions in a Time of Automation, McKinsey Global Institute
• Jobs of Tomorrow: Mapping Opportunity in the New Economy, World Economic Forum
• Opportunities in Change: Responding to the Future of Work, The McKell Institute
• Ready, Set, Upskill – Effective Training for the Jobs of Tomorrow, RMIT Online and Deloitte Access Economics

With Industry 4.0 well underway, we are seeing a global shift towards mass workforce training.

Industries across the board are upskilling their workers to meet the demands of our digital future. We are witnessing a rapid increase in learning and development as the race to bridge the skills gap – the skills workers hold and the skills required by industry – hastens.

Learning and Development teams and professional bodies, such as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), are preparing to get ahead of the curve by spearheading new programs and qualifications that are responsive to the labour market.

The announcement of CIPD’s new qualifications is a timely addition to the education sector in the UK, workforce upskilling and reskilling predicted to skyrocket. These new qualifications are expected to generate a large influx of individual and corporate memberships and provide more opportunities for CIPD-approved trainers to deliver more workforce training solutions than ever.

Over the past decade, our workforce has been continually evolving. The rising complexity of the business landscape and the digital revolution has severely impacted our world of work.

The rise of automation and new technology caused a skills rift – the skills required by industry far exceeded the skills workers currently held. The global pandemic crisis only heightened this skills gap. 

A report by McKinsey & Company discovered that 30 million UK workers, approximately 94% of our workforce, will be displaced by technology if their skills aren’t updated by 2030.

Progressive organisations have emphasised the need for human capital development as we enter Industry 4.0. They have identified that human capital investment is the key to yielding positive economic returns.

An integral part of this solution is to identify skills shortages as they emerge, implement organisation-wide training and embed a culture of lifelong learning.

We are beginning to witness the creative deployment and reskilling of workplaces within pioneering organisations in the UK. 

With new technologies emerging and disrupting the traditional workforce, organisations are becoming more agile. Human Resources (HR) and Learning and Development (L&D) functions are challenging, and thereby innovating, the role they play within the wider organisation.

HR leaders have been at the centre of every organisation’s rapid response to the global pandemic and digital displacement. They have played a central role in keeping the workforce engaged, productive and resilient.

According to McKinsey & Company, business executives no longer hold sole ownership on training curriculum decisions. HR and L&D teams now play an active role in formulating strategic visions for training in the broader workplace.

Those responsible must successfully manage the development of people – and to do so in a way that aligns to market trends and enables the growth of the organisation.

L&D teams will collaborate with training providers, professional education bodies and business leaders to launch capability-building programs that address the global skills crisis.

The importance of industry-accredited bodies within the education and training sector is undeniable. They are the conduit between training providers, L&D teams and individual learners.

Employers have long recognised the value of industry-registered training qualifications. These qualifications equip workers with skills like managing change and navigating complexity in their fast-changing roles.

The CIPD, one of the UK’s largest professional bodies, has been a trusted career partner to over 15,000 HR and L&D practitioners since 1913. Following a turbulent year of economic disruptions, they have announced the release of new qualifications in an effort to realign the skills inequality.

The new qualifications, set to release in 2021, compliment their 2018 Profession Map. The Profession Map develops and updates the core and specialist knowledge of emerging and established practitioners.

The CIPD is not the first organisation to push for stronger skills training. We are expected to see a surge of industry associations and training providers pivot to workforce training delivery in the coming years.

Professional bodies are rapidly realising the role of workforce training and development in future-proofing the workforce.

This creates significant opportunities for education and training providers to pioneer innovative upskilling and reskilling programs that respond to our changing economy and labour demands.

With huge demand from employers aspiring to enhance their workforce through formal training, registered training providers are now in a privileged position to form strategic partnerships with accreditation bodies to design and implement future training programs.

Becoming an industry-recognised training provider attracts many benefits, these include:

While there is still a great deal of uncertainty around the future of work, it is clear learning and development qualifications will make a profound impact in the upskilling and reskilling of the UK workforce.

The relationship between L&D teams, professional bodies and training providers will be necessary to facilitate and embed a culture of continual employee training.

Our workforce has buckled under the weight of a post-pandemic recession — with concerning irregularities emerging within the Australian and New Zealand workforce.

The COVID-19 outbreak had a disproportionate impact on working women. They faced redundancies in larger numbers than their male counterparts, with a significant percentage compromising education and training for domestic responsibilities. Many are calling this crisis a ‘pink recession’. 

This ‘pink’ economic downturn presents a unique opportunity for training providers to reinvent education design and delivery. 

We will witness a pivot in the relationship between the education system and the world of work. Innovative training programs will be crucial to building a resilient workforce and pave a way for our economic recovery post-pandemic.

The effects of the pandemic will reverberate globally for years to come.

Our workforce has witnessed a great asymmetry when looking at the impacts to each gender.

Australian women lost jobs at a greater rate than males. A study conducted by Monash University recorded 55% of the total jobs lost in April were held by women, despite women only accounting for 47% of the overall workforce.

In the height of the pandemic, we witnessed the responsibilities of home learning and domestic duties fall to women. Females were three times more likely than males to take unpaid leave or resign to look after children or provide family care. 

Female enrolment in tertiary education also dropped significantly, with women accounting for three-quarters of the overall student decline in higher education in 2020. 

As we look beyond the pandemic, women will feel the effects of the decline in education and work opportunities for years to come.  

This presents a unique challenge for Australian and New Zealand education and training providers.

Providers have seen an increase in responsibility when it comes to their role in educating workers.

Changing technologies are causing disruptions to our job market and evolving our nature of work. Workers must determine how to adapt to rapidly changing conditions and employers must find the best approach to transition workers to emerging roles and responsibilities. 

Education providers play a pivotal role in reshaping education programs that directly impact learners and employers. Innovative learning pathways and short courses will deliver training in high-value skills and industries that address the challenges of our labour market.

For our economy to emerge stronger from the COVID-19 crisis, education providers must reinvent their training programs to meet the needs of the job market.

Providers must develop and pilot innovative education and training programs that better align with the modern world of work we face today. They need to create more opportunities to upskill or reskill workers to enable our workforce to bounce back stronger.  

During the pandemic, education provider BreakThrough Business Solutions set a goal to design and deliver a training program that addressed the growing pink recession in New Zealand. 

Fiona Clark, Director and Business Growth Specialist at BreakThrough, explains how they identified a gap in the entrepreneurial market and designed a course that met the needs of these female learners.

“Early in the pandemic, we noticed many small businesses struggling. Although a minority, female-led businesses were an extremely vulnerable group in our industry. They didn’t have the support of a community and were struggling to adapt to the digital market,” explains Clark. 

“We wanted to design and deliver a course that provides these women with entrepreneurial skills and the support they need to safeguard and scale their business.” 

Launched in December 2020, the new Women in Business program focuses on building the growth capacity of female-led businesses to combat the unemployment crisis in New Zealand. 

“Small businesses play a significant role in our economy. With rising unemployment numbers, it’s important that we prevent more women from becoming another government statistic,” says Clark.

Training providers face a learning curve as the global education system figures out the best approach to reshape their education programs. 

We developed a roadmap with three critical steps for providers when optimising existing or designing new course content.

As technology changes and new industries emerge, providers will need to adopt a proactive approach to their learning design. This stage involves diagnosing the existing capabilities of the workforce, including any skills gaps, and comparing them with future trends.

There are several paths providers can take when scoping the market:

In this stage, providers must approach learning design with innovative thinking. They must identify their ability to deliver training solutions that contribute to future-fitting the workforce.

Consider whether existing programs meet the specific needs of industry or whether there is the need to pivot educational content to fill in those market gaps.

Constructing a quality infrastructure for delivery requires the adoption of new technologies. As the future of work accelerates to a digital-first mentality, providers must prioritise online or blended learning as the solution. 

Providers must also look to embed digital literacy in their programs as we enter Industry 4.0. Injecting digital technology into the student learning experience will expose students to technological skills useful later in their careers.

Learn more on how providers can implement digital literacy in their courses.

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a massive pink recession felt by the workforce in Australia and New Zealand. While there is no silver bullet to solve this crisis, innovative education and training programs will go a long way to bolstering our economic mobility.

Leading education providers will create more pathways for displaced workers to transition back into the workforce sooner rather than later.