Productivity Commission’s Building a skilled and adaptable workforce Inquiry report released

The Productivity Commission’s Building a Skilled and Adaptable Workforce Inquiry report, released late December, identifies significant constraints in Australia’s skills, education and training, and workforce development systems and proposes reforms to lift productivity by improving access to skills across the life course. The report emphasises three pillars relevant to business and industry:

• strengthening school foundations,
• enabling seamless tertiary pathways, and
• boosting work related training, alongside regulatory reforms to better use existing skills.

The Centre for Education and Training engaged extensively with the Productivity Commission during the Inquiry, including submissions, meetings and hosting a webinar. The Centre also produced research reports focusing on skills and productivity that were discussed with the Inquiry team, including Learning that works: Skills for today and tomorrow.

In the final report, key recommendations from the Commission in relation to boosting work related training and improving recognition of prior learning are closely aligned with advice and input provided by the Centre. For example:

• The Commission recommends piloting co-funded training vouchers for SMEs combined with advisory services to diagnose skills needs and codesign training plans. This proposal is closely aligned to the Centre’s advocacy across its 2025 productivity agenda.
• The Commission recommends improving the recognition of work-related training, including through the development of a National Skills Passport incorporating microcredentials and other high quality short course learning.
• The Commission recommends improving Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) through development of mechanisms for recognising other types of high-quality work-related training (such as verification and endorsement by Jobs and Skills Councils).
• The Commission recommends that Jobs and Skills Councils should identify trade-based occupations that are most suitable for alternative entry pathways such as accelerated apprenticeships or expanded non-apprentice pathways and undertake projects to develop and pilot alternative entry pathways in these areas. This is also closely aligned to CET’s input to the inquiry, which recommended that alternative entry pathways are best designed for workers who can already demonstrate skills they have developed through work in related occupations.

The Centre’s February 2026 webinar features the lead Commissioners from this inquiry who will share its findings and recommendations.

The Centre is advocating for the federal government to implement the findings of the Inquiry, particularly in relation to work related training and recognition of prior learning. If you have specific views on the recommendations put forward by the Productivity Commission through this inquiry and the way they should be implemented, you can share these views with the Centre to inform our advocacy. Contact CET@australianindustrygroup.com.au