Portfolio: Employment and Workplace Relations
http://www.asqa.gov.au
$45M
2025-26 Budget$50M
2024-25 Total Revenue250
Headcount (2024-25)VSLConnect Project
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
Total Budget
$41.8M
Digital Budget
$33.2M
July 2023 — December 2025
This project is enabling the Australian Government to better realise the benefits of the VET Student Loans (VSL) program and minimise the risk of occurrences such as the recent historical student debt issue. It will have a stronger focus on compliance and automation, and deliver a system that is flexible, scalable and stable, with a greatly enhanced data collection, integration and analytics capability.
Digital Transformation Program (Strengthening Integrity of the VET sector)
Australian Skills Quality Authority
Total Budget
$24.8M
Digital Budget
$24.8M
January 2024 — June 2027
The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) is the national regulator of the VET sector. In February 2024, ASQA commenced a 3.5-year Digital Transformation Program to address issues with its existing ICT systems and data capabilities. The objective of the program is to ensure that ASQA is a modern, best-practice regulator, through the implementation and integration of contemporary systems and applications that will ensure ASQA can efficiently and effectively deliver its regulatory and organisational priorities.
Parent Pathways
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
Total Budget
$68.7M
Digital Budget
$36.8M
November 2023 — June 2026
The project is supporting the implementation of Parent Pathways, a voluntary service that provides personalised assistance and financial support to eligible parents and carers of children up to the age of 6 years. This extended ParentsNext to 31 October 2024 and introduced Parent Pathways from 1 November 2024, which included releasing the IT system on the Workforce Australia Digital Platform and the APS Pilot. As part of the project, enhancements will be made to Parent Pathways.
Enhancements to the Workforce Australia Digital Platform to administer the redesigned foundation skills program
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
Total Budget
$10.9M
Digital Budget
$10.9M
July 2023 — June 2026
The redesigned Skills for Education and Employment (SEE) program will improve the language, literacy, numeracy and digital literacy (LLND) skills for Australians. The program will feature 2 complementary streams of LLND training delivery. Enhancements to the Workforce Australia Digital Platform are required to support the delivery, data reporting and compliance arrangements of the redesigned SEE program.
Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme insourcing
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
Total Budget
$9M
Digital Budget
$9M
July 2023 — June 2026
The project transferred the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Information System (PALMIS) to the department's infrastructure from July to December 2023. Work is now focused on expanding and enhancement to align PALMIS with the department’s operating model. PALMIS will provide strong oversight and reporting, which will support the government’s plan to Build a Stronger Pacific Family, uphold worker protections, and address unmet labour needs in regional and rural Australia.
Reconnection, Employment and Learning (REAL) Program
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
Total Budget
$60.6M
Digital Budget
$7.7M
June 2024 — June 2030
This project supports the implementation of the REAL Program that is replacing the Time to Work Employment Service. The REAL Program is a voluntary program that will support First Nations prisoners aged 15 years and over to transition from the justice system into employment and learning.
The citizen cohorts and life-event journeys that touch this department, drawn from the department_links mapping in the citizen-voice-journeys corpus.
LIFE EVENTS (1)
8 tagged
Reform proposals on YourGov that name this department as a delivery partner — drawn from citizen voice, government strategy, research, international examples and gap analysis.
STRATEGY SUMMARY
Our purpose is to ensure quality vocational education and training (VET) so that students, industry, governments and the community have confidence in the integrity of national qualifications issued by training providers. [CP p.4]
PURPOSE
Our purpose is to ensure quality vocational education and training (VET) so that students, industry, governments and the community have confidence in the integrity of national qualifications issued by training providers. [CP p.4]
Corporate Plan 2025-26 · p.4Strategic priorities
· 2
Enhancing Australians’ skills for improved productivity, wage growth and economic development, as well as to support mor
Enhancing Australians’ skills for improved productivity, wage growth and economic development, as well as to support more equitable outcomes in employment opportunities for those who may be disadvantaged.
Corporate Plan 2025-26 · p.8Positioning Australia as an economically prosperous, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable nation.
Corporate Plan 2025-26 · p.8Outcomes
· 1
Outcome 1: Through our regulation and partnership with stakeholders, ensure quality vocational education and training so that students, employers, the community and governments have confidence in the integrity of national qualifications issued by training providers.
We accredit VET courses to make sure nationally approved standards are met, based on established industry, enterprise, education, legislative or community need. We take regulatory action against non-registered training providers and other entities that are not authorised to deliver VET qualifications if they breach the law. We support confidence in the integrity of national qualifications issued by training providers by: Ensuring our monitoring, compliance, enforcement and education activities make full use of intelligence and data so that the community can be confident that our activities are based on analysis of risk Maintaining essential safeguards by responding adeptly to provider non-compliance and taking effective action, applying a range of compliance and enforcement activities proportionate to the level of harm Using education as a key regulatory tool and providing feedback that enables regulated entities to take responsibility for meting their obligations, and supports providers to address risks and monitor, evaluate and continuously improve VET outcomes.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Values
· 6
Committed to service
Collaborative
Accountable
Empowered and trusted
United and connected
Future orientated
Performance measures
· 3
| Code | Measure | Target 2025-26 | Latest result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1A | Effectiveness of regulatory risk treatment strategies. | Show progress toward the outcome of a sector that operates with integrity. Corporate Plan 2025-26 · p.24 | Target met Annual Report 2024-25 · p.58 | Achieved |
2A | Improvement in performance against ASQA’s service standards. | Demonstrates accountability and transparency. Corporate Plan 2025-26 · p.26 | Stakeholders (e.g. learners, employers, governments) rely on committed and capable providers to ensure qualifications are credible. Annual Report 2024-25 · p.59 | Achieved |
3A | Staff engagement in skills and capability development and innovation adoption. | Ensures staff are equipped to adapt to evolving regulatory, digital, and strategic demands and enables the agency to proactively manage future capability needs. Corporate Plan 2025-26 · p.28 | High levels of satisfaction with our regulatory interactions. Annual Report 2024-25 · p.91 | Achieved |
Source documents
· 10
2024-25
ASQA Annual Report 2024-25 - (pdf 6.98 MB)
Open
2023-24
ASQA Annual Report 2023-24 - (pdf 6.1 MB)
Open
2022-23
ASQA Annual Report 2022-23 - (pdf 2.62 MB)
Open
2021-22
ASQA Annual Report 2021-22 - (pdf 8.97 MB)
Open
2020-21
ASQA Annual Report 2020-21 - (pdf 3.53 MB)
Open
2025-26
Download ASQA Corporate Plan 2025-26
Open
2026
Regulatory Risk Framework - (pdf 3.01 MB)
Open
2026
Download VET Sector Strategic Forum - Terms of Reference 2025
Open
2026
VET Sector Strategic Forum Communiqué - July 2025 - (pdf 92.82 KB)
Open
2026
VET Sector Strategic Forum Communiqué - April 2025 - (pdf 141.58 KB)
Open
Ideas distilled from this entity's strategy & evidence
· 8
Increase compliance monitoring accuracy
Implement a real-time data analytics system to monitor compliance more accurately.
2024-25.pdf [AR p.15]
Improve provider registration processing times
Streamline the provider registration process to reduce processing times.
2025-26.pdf [CP p.20]
Adopt Singapore's VET regulatory framework
Adopt Singapore's VET regulatory framework for more efficient and transparent regulation.
worldbank.txt
Enhance compliance audit processes
Implement a risk-based compliance audit approach to focus on high-risk areas first.
2025-26.pdf [CP p.18]
Create a public dashboard for compliance data
Build a public dashboard showing real-time compliance data for training providers.
2025-26.pdf [CP p.25]
Streamline case processing workflow
Redesign the case processing workflow to reduce bottlenecks and improve efficiency.
2024-25.pdf [AR p.12]
Expand international regulatory collaboration
Form strategic partnerships with international VET regulators to share best practices and regulatory insights.
2025-26.pdf [CP p.30]
Improve training provider feedback collection
Implement a more robust system for collecting and analyzing feedback from training providers.
2024-25.pdf [AR p.17]
Increase compliance monitoring accuracy
Implement a real-time data analytics system to monitor compliance more accurately.
2024-25.pdf [AR p.15]
Improve provider registration processing times
Streamline the provider registration process to reduce processing times.
2025-26.pdf [CP p.20]
Adopt Singapore's VET regulatory framework
Adopt Singapore's VET regulatory framework for more efficient and transparent regulation.
worldbank.txt
Enhance compliance audit processes
Implement a risk-based compliance audit approach to focus on high-risk areas first.
2025-26.pdf [CP p.18]
Create a public dashboard for compliance data
Build a public dashboard showing real-time compliance data for training providers.
2025-26.pdf [CP p.25]
Streamline case processing workflow
Redesign the case processing workflow to reduce bottlenecks and improve efficiency.
2024-25.pdf [AR p.12]
Expand international regulatory collaboration
Form strategic partnerships with international VET regulators to share best practices and regulatory insights.
2025-26.pdf [CP p.30]
Improve training provider feedback collection
Implement a more robust system for collecting and analyzing feedback from training providers.
2024-25.pdf [AR p.17]
Legislation administered
· 21
2011
National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011
ASQA administers this Act to regulate the vocational education and training sector.
2000
Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000
ASQA administers this Act to regulate education services for overseas students.
1997
Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Act 1997
ASQA administers this Act to regulate registration charges for overseas students.
2012
National Vocational Education and Training Regulator (Charges) Act 2012
ASQA administers this Act to regulate charges related to the national vocational education and training regulator.
2014
Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014
ASQA administers this Act to provide regulatory powers for the national vocational education and training regulator.
2013
Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013
ASQA administers this Act to ensure public governance, performance, and accountability.
2025
National Vocational Education and Training Regulator (Compliance Standards for NVR Registered Training Organisations and Fit and Proper Person Requirements) Instrument 2025
ASQA administers this instrument to set compliance standards for registered training organisations.
2025
National Vocational Education and Training Regulator (Outcome Standards for Registered Training Organisations) Instrument 2025
ASQA administers this instrument to set outcome standards for registered training organisations.
2023
National Vocational Education and Training Regulator (Authorised Officer Requirements) Determination 2023
ASQA administers this determination to set requirements for authorised officers.
2022
National Vocational Education and Training Regulator (Charges) Determination 2022
ASQA administers this determination to set charges related to the national vocational education and training regulator.
2022
National Vocational Education and Training Regulator (Fees) Determination 2022
ASQA administers this determination to set fees related to the national vocational education and training regulator.
2018
ELICOS (English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students) Standards 2018
ASQA administers these standards for English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students.
2019
Education Services for Overseas Students Regulations 2019
ASQA administers these regulations to regulate education services for overseas students.
2021
National Vocational Education and Training Regulator (Financial Viability Risk Assessment Requirements) Instrument 2021
ASQA administers this instrument to set financial viability risk assessment requirements.
2018
National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018
ASQA administers this code of practice for providers of education and training to overseas students.
2020
National Vocational Education and Training Regulator (Data Provision Requirements) Instrument 2020
ASQA administers this instrument to set data provision requirements.
2011, 2022
National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Regulations 2011 and National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment Regulations 2022
ASQA administers these regulations to regulate the national vocational education and training sector.
2021
Standards for VET Accredited Courses 2021
ASQA administers these standards for accredited VET courses.
2014
Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014
ASQA administers this rule to ensure public governance, performance, and accountability.
Source library
· 16
7.3MB
2024-25.pdf
6.4MB
2023-24.pdf
2.7MB
2022-23.pdf
9.4MB
2021-22.pdf
3.7MB
2020-21.pdf
1.8MB
2025-26.pdf
446KB
Fact-20sheet-20--20Sample-20forms-20of-20AQF-20certification-20documentation.pdf
2.9MB
Ministerial-20Statement-20of-20Expectations-2022.12.2025.pdf
174KB
ASQA-20Statement-20of-20Intent-202026.pdf
344KB
audit_and_risk_committee_charter.pdf
573KB
Approach-to-review-of-decisions.pdf
150KB
response_to_asqa_process_review_final_report.pdf
Bodies within the Employment and Workplace Relations portfolio
Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman
Non-corporate Commonwealth Entity
Seafarers Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Authority
Non-corporate Commonwealth Entity
Safe Work Australia
Non-corporate Commonwealth Entity
Fair Work Commission
Non-corporate Commonwealth Entity
Comcare
Corporate Commonwealth Entity
Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave Funding) Corporation
Corporate Commonwealth Entity
Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency
Non-corporate Commonwealth Entity
Jobs and Skills Australia Ministerial Advisory Board
Statutory Body
Federal Safety Commissioner
Statutory Body
National Workplace Relations Consultative Council
Statutory Body
Seafarers Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Authority
Statutory Body
Safe Work Australia
Statutory Body