How WorldSkills Australia brought skills to the top of the political agenda

Placing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) at the top of national agendas is critical to improving accessibility and expanding education pathways that prioritize skills development. WorldSkills Competitions have long shone a spotlight on skilled individuals who thrive when their passions align with their talents, while also helping to humanize and open access to professions that might otherwise be distant or out of reach.

WorldSkills Australia capitalized on this and, within one Competition cycle, elevated the value of TVET and the mission of WorldSkills amongst their most influential policymakers. Brigitte Collins, General Manager of WorldSkills Australia and WorldSkills Board member, explains. “Our approach, put simply, was about making it as easy as possible for Ministers to see WorldSkills in action. This was about creating ways we could show them our impact, not just tell them about it.”

WorldSkills Australia’s current advocacy programme started back in 2023 when it was staging its first national competition since the COVID-19 pandemic. Trevor Schwenke, CEO of WorldSkills Australia, had a vision to maximize its first in-person, single-site event for nearly four years. He recalls, “We had an opportunity to mobilize more people and we didn’t want to miss it. Our ambition was to create a week-long celebration of skills that would allow people to see the broader value of skills beyond the competition.”

The team made a conscious decision to engage with the National Apprentice Employment Network (NAEN) and the TAFE Directors Australia (TDA) who both had conferences in Melbourne at the same time as the WorldSkills Australia National Competition. Bespoke tours of the national competition were added to their conference programmes and more than 200 delegates took up the opportunity to experience the competition and see young Competitors in action.

Brigitte adds, “We put more resources into Channel WSA, our TV channel, and 11,000 viewers tuned in. Having the Minister for Skills and Training from Victoria tour the competition also raised our profile. Key stakeholders were engaged and we knew we had something great to build on.”

The team agree that this investment of time and money had incredible return for them. The impact during the WorldSkills Australia National Competition and skills show was more than enough to persuade key Ministers to go further. Brendan O’Connor, the then national Minister for Skills and Training, Blair Boyer MP, the Minister for Education, Training, and Skills for South Australia, and shadow minister John Gardener from South Australia, were part of a Delegates tour organised by WorldSkills Australia to support and see Team Australia compete at WorldSkills Lyon 2024. Brigitte says, “We seized this opportunity with both hands. The Ministers toured the Competition, visited the Conference, joined networking events, round tables with other Member nations that we coordinated, and got to talk directly to Competitors and Experts.”

She reflects, “They felt the magic that is WorldSkills and the feedback from that trip was incredible. Former Minister Brendan O’Connor called us to say how flabbergasted he was by what he saw. They had never experienced anything like it and then we knew we were onto a good thing.” This strong ministerial support after Lyon gave WorldSkills Australia new impetus to increase their engagement with policymakers. They immediately looked ahead to their national championships and skills show in 2025 and mapped out a two-year engagement strategy.

Brisbane, Queensland played host to the WorldSkills Australia National Competition, which once again coincided with the NAEN conference and secured another spot on their programme to offer tours of the nationals. WorldSkills Australia approached TAFE Queensland’s international team, working with them to develop a programme for a Pacific Island Delegation to tour the TAFE Campuses, witness the national competition, and attend a symposium.

Thanks to the former Federal Minister and South Australian Minister for Skills and Training attending WorldSkills Lyon 2024, Trevor was also invited to present at a quarterly meeting between the Federal and State Skills and Training Ministers.

The support from Ministers was unprecedented. Brigitte says, “Many Ministers visited the competition in person over the week, and the Minister for Skills and Training, the Hon Andrew Giles MP, gave us over two hours of his time to visit the competition and speak to judges and competitors about the impact of what we are doing.”

She reflects, “Ministers are just like all of us. They want to learn but they also want to be inspired. So we made sure our skills week around the nationals was dynamic and exciting. We had 26 Try-a-Skills events so they could get close to the skills, and we made sure they could speak to the young people themselves. More than anything, they want to hear their stories.”

It was these stories that took root and, last month, helped WorldSkills Australia secure the attendance of 35 Ministers from across the country at its National Skills Week celebrations at Parliament House in Canberra. The team used their learnings to make personal invitations to each Minister who had a representative in the team heading towards WorldSkills Shanghai 2026.

Brigitte explains, “We advised them that a young Competitor or an Expert in their electorate would be representing their country in skills and they had an opportunity to meet them in person. And, again, we made it as easy as possible for them to come by moving our “Skillaroo” training camp to Canberra so Ministers could attend the event.”

This groundswell of interest meant WorldSkills Australia engaged the highest-level stakeholder, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese himself. He invited the 2026 Team Australia Training Squad to meet with him personally at Parliament House with Minister Andrew Giles to ask them about their skills and preparation for WorldSkills Shanghai 2026.

Brigitte reflects that by coinciding WorldSkills Australia events with ministerial calendars and geographies, it became easy for them to engage. She concludes, “If you can strategically plan ahead, if you can help the stars align, and help the dots connect, then the payback is really worth it.”

Read more about WorldSkills Australia’s ministerial event.