Industry licensing
In Australia, industry regulators in each state and territory currently oversee compliance with industry occupational license requirements. These regulators manage and monitor the application of these requirements, stipulating whether workers need to obtain a licence - or licences - in order to work in their chosen industry.
The vocational education and training system provides training outcomes which are not always recognised by regulatory authorities for the purposes of occupational licensing. This often requires the student to undertake additional testing before being eligible to apply for a licence. It has been identified as a priority to improve alignment between the licensing and training systems so that the skill related requirements for licensing will be able to be demonstrated through the vocational education and training system.
The Department of Employment and Training has been working collaboratively with Workplace Health and Safety Queensland to support the integration of prescribed occupations within the national training system as a trial to demonstrate how occupational licensing requirements can be integrated within the vocational education and training system.
This means that in some occupations, registered training organisations can now buy licences to deliver newly accredited courses, and apply for an extension to scope.
The department regularly conducts seminars to help stakeholders stay informed about developments in industry licensing. Visit the events calendar for information on upcoming seminars.
There has also been a number of projects conducted to provide an insight on identifying ways that both the training and industry sectors can be more closely aligned so that students completing vocational training also achieve the requirements for industry licensing.
Further information on these projects is as follows:
Licensing Line National Project
This project, previously funded by the Australian National Training Authority and the Queensland Department of Employment and Traning, identified licensing issues and suggested approaches to better accommodate these issues within the training package development and review process. The outcomes from this project sought to inform regulatory and licensing authorities on the role training packages play in the vocational education and training system.
National Licensing Project
The National Licensing Project was initiated in November 2000, and its intentions were noted by the Australian National Training Authority Ministerial Council (now the Ministerial Council for Vocational and Technical Education). The National Licensing Project is examining industry licenses in relation to training packages and the National Vocational Education and Training System.
The Licensing Line News website is a key online resource for industry, training and regulatory stakeholders affected by occupational licensing. The site features the latest local and national news plus tools to make sense of licensing issues and jargon:
-
Licensing Line Newsletter - free monthly news on national and local licensing and vocational education and training developments
-
Glossary - plain language explanations for licensing and vocational education and training terms, abbreviations and acronyms
-
Links - national and local contacts for key licence areas.
Contact Apprenticeships info 1800 210 210 or Training Queensland 1300 369 935
Other languages