19 June 2024

This Joint Statement of Intent by the Government of Australia (GoA) and Government of Papua New Guinea ("GoPNG") ("the Partners") confirms our shared commitment to work together to improve outcomes from Papua New Guinea's Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector and to grow the number of skilled workers to enable Papua New Guinea to seize economic growth opportunities domestically and internationally.

The Partners acknowledge the critical contribution that education and training makes to national development and the establishment of a vibrant economy, and the longstanding cooperation between our two countries in education. The Partners note that TVET remains a priority under the Papua New Guinea-Australia Partnership. The Partners signed the original joint statement of intent on 5 August 2020, and committed to its implementation at the 29th Australia-Papua New Guinea Ministerial Forum on 17 February 2023. The Partners recognise that the improvement of TVET across Papua New Guinea will enable more Papua New Guineans to support growing industries around the country and benefit from opportunities offered by Australia's labour mobility programs.

Recognising the environment has undergone significant shifts since the statement was first signed in 2020, the Partners reaffirm the objective of this Statement of Intent to frame joint efforts to improve TVET in Papua New Guinea.

1. The Partners jointly commit to supporting the GoPNG tertiary sector reform agenda, led by the Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology ("DHERST"), by:
   1. Ensuring that knowledge and research inform DHERST's policies and shape investment in the TVET sector;
   2. Ensuring that Papua New Guinean TVET institutions are strengthened and have qualified principals and trainers with recent and relevant industry experience, curricula that meet industry standards and needs, and qualifications appropriate for current and future employment in PNG and overseas;
   3. Increasing the number of competent income-earning graduates who join the domestic workforce, build their own businesses, or participate in labour mobility programs;
   4. Ensuring more Papua New Guinean women and citizens with disability are accessing and completing quality training leading to a more inclusive workforce;
   5. Ensuring that their joint programs are adequately flexible to allow adjustments that enhance performance, accommodate resource availability, and respond to emerging TVET needs;
   6. Adhering to their joint decisions on targeting, financing, resourcing, managing and overseeing TVET programs funded by GoA, and conducting annual joint reviews;
   7. Establishing functional joint governance structures and arrangements for strategic oversight of Partners' investments;
   8. Reporting to Ministers biennially on progress implementing commitments under this Statement of Intent; and
   9. Acting in good faith, communicating openly, and sharing information, to inform strategic planning and decision-making by both Partners.
2. Through DHERST, the GoPNG commits to:
   1. Providing leadership to ensure that the TVET sector enabling environment can meet the objectives of investments (including the Partners' joint investments) in a timely manner;
   2. Coordinating and ensuring complementarity between all internally and externally funded TVET sector investments;
   3. Enabling the National Skills Development Agency to fulfil its function of working with GoPNG agencies, industry and higher education institutes to deliver TVET sector strengthening initiatives, including establishing pathways for women, youth and citizens with a disability
   4. Advancing a whole-of-GoPNG commitment to establishing, financing and maintaining TVET institutions; and
   5. Ensuring the efficient and effective start-up, implementation, closure, and sustainability of TVET investments, including Australian-financed investments.
3. Through its Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the GoA commits to:
   1. Supporting DHERST to implement its plans, policies and programs to develop the TVET sector;
   2. Leveraging co-financing from other development partners to transform the TVET sector and support PNG's domestic workforce needs and its labour mobility goals; and
   3. Providing leadership to facilitate functional relationships amongst development partners and TVET sector stakeholders.

Signed on the nineteenth day of June 2024, by Australia's Minister for International Development and the Pacific, the Hon Pat Conroy MP, and PNG's caretaker Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, the Hon Lucas Dawa Dekena MP.

Related links

• Papua New Guinea – Australia Joint Statement of Intent on Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Papua New Guinea [DOCX 352 KB] (Previous Joint Statement, Signed on 5 August 2020)
• Strategic Review of the Papua New Guinea–Australia Partnership in TVET