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24 Jun, 2014

Australia to help students put training records online

20 June 2014, Canberra, Minister for Industry’s office – The Australian Government is delivering more improvements to the skills and training system to ensure students can move more easily from training into paid jobs that boost national productivity.

From next year, millions of Australians will be able to build an online record of their vocational education and training attainments and qualifications. The online record will be accessible throughout a student’s life, helping to make lost qualifications a thing of the past.

The Senate has passed the Student Identifiers Bill 2014 paving the way for the Unique Student Identifier scheme to start on 1 January 2015. From this date, students will be able to apply for their unique number and training providers will be supplying updated information to the national vocational education and training (VET) data collection.

The scheme will commence in 2015 and transcripts will be available in 2016.

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said it was an important development for the training sector which was crucial to national productivity and competitiveness.

“This scheme will be very helpful to students when they are applying for jobs, updating their resumes, or applying for training credit,” Mr Macfarlane said. “It will also make it easier for training providers and Australian businesses to share training information. At the moment, it is not possible for students to obtain a complete record of their VET enrolments and achievements from a single online source. The Government will continue to work with the sector to ensure training is delivering the skills Australian businesses are calling out for, to boost economic growth and productivity.”