In 2025, SAGE initiated the first steps toward a new national gender equity and diversity accreditation model for the TAFE sector.

This multi-year project is funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science and Resources to foster workplace cultures and learning environments that attract, retain and progress underrepresented cohorts.

This includes women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with disabilities, culturally and linguistically diverse individuals, and LGBTQIA+ communities. This will be achieved by embedding systemic Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (GEDI) practises into everyday structures, decisions, and accountabilities.

Through this initial phase, we engaged 65 leaders, practitioners, and sector representatives across 23 organisations, marking the first step in developing a new national TAFE accreditation model.

From the outset, the message from the sector was clear: TAFEs want a framework that reflects how they operate, who their learners are, and the local communities they support and shape.

What we learned through the Discovery Phase

Throughout 2025, we completed the Discovery Phase to better understand the TAFE operating environment. This focused on how TAFEs are structured, how GEDI work is currently organised, and where existing policies, reporting requirements and initiatives currently sit.

We mapped TAFE governance and operating environments, reviewed national jurisdictional policy settings, and examined existing GEDI frameworks.

We also held extensive discussions with TAFEs and peak bodies. These discussions moved beyond programs and activities to explore what is working, what feels fragmented, and where structural barriers exist.

Through this work, we learned that:

GEDI work is often siloed: Many TAFEs described current GEDI work as well-intentioned but siloed and disconnected, rather than supported by an overarching framework drawing them together.

One size will not fit all: TAFEs emphasised that any accreditation model must recognise different starting points and the GEDI work TAFEs have already undertaken. It must also consider varying operating contexts and resourcing realities, while still setting clear expectations and direction.

Data limitations are holding progress back: TAFEs and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) highlighted gaps in data coverage, comparability, and intersectional visibility. These gaps limit their ability to track progress, identify inequities, and tell a clear story about GEDI outcomes.

Design Principles Emerging from the Sector

These findings from the discovery phase have shaped the early design principles for this framework. Our new framework should:

Be low-burden, resource-sensitive, and align with existing reporting requirements (e.g. GEAPS) and existing GEDI programs to reduce duplication and support compliance with current mandates.

Reflect TAFE’s strong links to community and industry, with employers and community partners recognised as key parts of the TAFE GEDI ecosystem.

Recognise students as integral to all TAFE activity, including curriculum, teaching, and work-based education (e.g. apprenticeships and traineeships).

Embed GEDI accountability into roles and governance systems, ensuring continuity beyond individual staff and leaders.

Why This Work is Needed

In 2025, Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) released its Gender Economic Equality Study, shining a spotlight on the persistent gendered patterns shaping work, pay, occupations, and education, skills and training across Australia.

The report positions SAGE as a key delivery partner in advancing national gender equity, particularly in tackling gender-segregated training pathways in occupations experiencing critical skills shortages.

It reveals just how entrenched these patterns remain: in 2021, only 21 per cent of occupations were gender balanced, underscoring the highly gendered nature of Australia’s labour market.

Importantly, the report finds that skills shortages tend to deepen as gender segregation increases, with shortages most pronounced in male-dominated occupations.

These challenges are further compounded by intersectional inequalities. Differences in work, jobs and pay are shaped not only by gender, but also by race, ethnicity and cultural background. This means that some people experience exclusion or concentration in certain roles due to multiple, overlapping identities.

JSA also identifies SAGE as a key delivery partner in strengthening safe and inclusive TAFE workplaces and learning environments.

This includes supporting workplace health and safety approaches that move beyond compliance, fostering respectful cultures where learners and workers feel safe, valued and able to thrive.

Together, this national context and momentum highlight the growing need for a Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (GEDI) framework designed specifically for the TAFE sector. One that responds to both workforce realities and the people at the centre of them.

Get Involved

The design principles are now helping us to shape a draft design of the new TAFE accreditation framework.

Between July and October 2026, we will seek feedback on the draft design through a comprehensive, sector-wide consultation process. All TAFEs and relevant stakeholders will be invited to take part and share their views.

The time commitment will be approximately 1-2 hours with the option of participating via an online survey or in-person/virtual roundtable.

If you are interested in finding out more about the TAFE project or participating in the consultation process, please email our TAFE Program Manager, Kate Walton: kate.walton@sciencegenderequity.org.au  

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