To improve employability, tertiary education may need to recalibrate provision to focus additionally on ensuring students acquire skills useful in the current & future labour market, besides improving how they make those identifiable to employers.
Key steps include identifying what those skills are, examining whether the curriculum and learning experience deliver on them and embedding micro-credentials for skills in degree pathways, expert speakers told ACU 2025 Congress, the annual conference of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), hosted at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, over the 3 consecutive days of 26–28 November 2025.
It includes developing skills and capabilities that will be meaningful, even when AI has transformed the world of work.
The Commissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia, Professor Barney Glover AO, said that Australia currently has an imbalanced post-secondary education system that produces too many higher education graduates and not enough vocational education and training (VET) graduates. This is causing distortions in Australia’s labour market.
Glover went on to add that Australia needs growth in both sectors. This is to encourage young people to consider opportunities across the tertiary spectrum and have better connectivity between those two sectors.
When delivering the keynote in a session on jobs, skills, and innovation: shaping education for tomorrow’s workforce, Glover, a former vice chancellor of Western Sydney University, added that this was not a topic that university leaders were always comfortable with, sharing that when he talks about skills with vice chancellors in Australia, they can get quite edgy.
Commenting further, Glover stated that they don’t like the idea of being involved in a conversation around skills. They seem to prefer education or knowledge.
In some cases, Glover added that they push back on the concept that their students acquire skills.
Glover added that some students do acquire skills, and if Australia better matches skills to jobs in the labour market, Australia benefits by enhancing productivity.
Glover stated that in Australia, there is a significant productivity initiative aimed at ensuring a connection between Australian skills, students, and jobs.
Glover shared that the Australians are working with the UK, Europe, Singapore and other countries to develop skills classification systems. Australia is in the process of developing a national skills taxonomy, which several Australian universities have already adopted as a precursor.
The Australian context is that the country is transitioning from a marginally funded, demand-driven system that has operated for over 15 years. Glover described this as a significant imbalance in our higher education system, from a much more managed growth system, with growth being the key word.
The government has committed to adding 200,000 places in universities over the next decade and significant needs-based funding for equity groups.
The basis for this reform agenda lies in the establishment of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC). Glover is a member of ATEC. The design of this flagship initiative aims to tackle systematic inequalities, promote inclusivity, and align skills. To achieve the latter objective, it is tasked with unified higher & vocational education.
Glover added that one thing Australia seeks is to diversify its higher education system, as Australia seeks to encourage new entrants into higher education.
Glover shared that the aim is to increase the proportion of the working-age population with a tertiary qualification from the present value of 65% to register a 15% increase to 80% within the next 25 years, which leads to 2050.
This is against a backdrop of an expectation that in 4 or 5 years, more than 90% of all jobs in Australia will require tertiary education qualifications.
Uncertainty looms over the impact of AI development on the labour market and the future skills required.
