Published in The Australian 9 July 2026
Like many bright, young people, Samuel Davis did what society expected of him. He got good marks at school, got a university degree, then landed a covetable job in corporate marketing. He was successful in the conventional sense, but he wasn’t happy.
Deciding to leap into the unknown, he took a side job as a labourer and loved it so much he swapped his suits for high-vis and is now a fourth-year carpentry apprentice with ambitions of running his own construction company.
Samuel rewrote his own script, and now it seems that employers want to do the same.
According to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, too many young people are being pushed into university rather than into vocational learning or trades. The group has warned a parliamentary inquiry that a “systematic preference” for university is not always in the interests of individuals or the broader economy.
I couldn’t agree more.
Australia’s economic growth is being constrained by longstanding national skills demands and employers are crying out for occupational skills that are taught in a TAFE classroom rather than a university lecture theatre.
Employer bodies recently told a separate Senate inquiry that many graduates are not well-prepared for the workforce, and a clear and growing misalignment between graduate outcomes and labour market demand has emerged.
That inquiry is investigating the rising number of university graduates who struggle to find work, asking whether they are being taught the skills employers want and need. However, if we are to find a solution to what is widely deemed an issue of national urgency, we also must tackle the barriers that continue to prevent so many young Australians from considering a vocational study pathway.
For decades the TAFE system has been producing job-ready candidates across an expanding range of rewarding careers. Yet in many sections of society TAFE continues to be viewed as inferior to university or a “back-up plan”.
This is despite the fact 91 per cent of TAFE students achieve their employment goals, such as getting a new job or a promotion, with that figure rising to 94 per cent for regional TAFE students.
A similar picture can be seen in priority sectors such as the clean economy, advanced manufacturing and defence. While inquiries routinely hear that insufficient work placements risk undermining the quality of university degrees, this isn’t an issue for TAFE students. The vocational sector’s high value on integrated, industry-relevant learning means students learn a skill in the classroom and are able to apply it on the worksite immediately.
A solution proposed by one industry group is for universities to build more systematic partnerships with employers, ensuring curriculum is shaped by how skills are actually used at work. That is a reasonable description of what Australia’s TAFEs are already doing and at scale with major employers such as Microsoft, BlueScope and more.
None of this is an argument against universities. Australia needs both. But there’s no doubt that the country’s economic challenges, the housing crisis and low productivity chief among them, require a much larger pipeline of vocationally trained, trade-qualified workers than we are producing.
Victoria alone will need 1.4 million additional workers by 2034. The construction sector, for example, is already under serious strain. We cannot build the homes Australians need without carpenters, and we cannot produce enough carpenters without supercharging investment in the public TAFE system that trains the vast bulk of traditional trade apprentices.
The federal and Victorian government investment in Free TAFE courses has made a tangible difference, removing the financial barrier that previously stopped many not only young people but also women reskilling after parental leave and mature workers upskilling for the next phase of their careers from pursuing training.
Through the National Skills Agreement, the federal government has partnered with state and territory governments to deliver more than 500,000 Free TAFE places. I’ve seen and heard first-hand how life-changing Free TAFE has been.
However, in addition to the social perception barrier, infrastructure needed to meet this demand is not keeping pace. Victoria’s TAFE campuses will need 20 per cent more floorspace to meet growing demand, while many existing assets, equipment and classrooms are overdue for refurbishment or upgrades. Victoria needs at least $2.5bn in infrastructure funding across the next decade.
So, while these national inquiries will produce recommendations about the university sector, an equally pressing question for state and federal governments is whether they are prepared to boost funding for the TAFE system at the scale the economy now requires.
Employers and workers have spoken. There is huge support for our public TAFEs to be treated as an equal first choice.
Alex White is chief executive of the Victorian TAFE Association.