This updated plan details progress made in implementing the National Skills Agreement and delivering on the national priorities for the Vocational Education and Training system, as well as new focus areas for the national priorities for 2026. A new feature in this year’s National Skills Plan is a set of state and territory case studies to highlight local initiatives to address each of the national priorities.

Featured updates

• Jobs and Skills Councils, including insights on the work conducted over the past year with a focus on achieving national productivity goals and cross-cutting workforce priorities.
• Implementation of key elements of the National Skills Agreement including the shared stewardship model, publication of jurisdictional action plans, publication of the outcomes framework and progress in developing the balanced scorecard.
• Progress in design and delivery of policy initiatives under the National Skills Agreement, including TAFE Centres of Excellence, VET Workforce and the National TAFE Network.
• Progress on a range of complementary actions such as Mobile TAFE, Free TAFE and the Australian Skills Guarantee.
• Progress on the National Agreement on Closing the Gap priority reforms through co-designed initiatives and work towards the establishment of the National First Nations VET Policy Partnership and the Indigenous Centre for Vocational Excellence in 2026.
• The eight National Priorities and the new focus areas for the coming 12 months. This section identifies new areas of focus relating to capacity building in VET.