To engage or not to engage : what can the national VET system offer enterprises?

One of the challenges facing industry in Australia is finding the best way to harness the opportunities offered by the national vocational education and training (VET) system. The VET system with its network of registered training organisations, and infrastructure of Training Packages and the VET Quality Framework, has the potential to assist organisations to develop approaches to training that are truly national in scope and focus. However there are significant barriers to realising this goal. This chapter outlines the architecture of the VET system, and then analyses the issues and challenges that industry faces in its efforts to work with the national training system, and the strategies and practices industry uses in addressing them to meet workforce development needs.