Automotive Research Bulletin - October 2025 | Mining and Automotive Skills Alliance

Automotive Bulletin

This month, the Research Bulletin explores:

Skills shortages in the Automotive industry
The benefits and challenges associated with Recognition Prior Learning
Occupational Recognition Services

Skills shortages are a persistent issue for the Automotive industry. In 2023, 35% of 26 key Automotive occupations were in shortage.¹ Since the beginning of the pandemic, vacancy levels in automotive occupations have increased more than the national average, making it harder for automotive businesses to find skilled staff and apprentices.² The industry was short nearly 28,000 technicians, roughly one per workshop, and had 14,000 unfilled apprenticeship positions in 2024.³ RPL has the potential to increase skills supply to mitigate these shortages, but faces barriers because of cost, resource requirements, and time.

Recognition of Prior Learning’s potential

Traditional approaches to mitigating skills shortages explore learning and training pathways; however, there is also the potential to unlock greater workforce capacity by removing barriers to entry for workers who have left the workforce and are looking to return, at times through Recognition Prior Learning (RPL). RPL can assist experienced, semi-skilled, and/or mature-age workers who are not formally (or fully) qualified to gain a full, nationally recognised qualification.⁴

This can be particularly useful for certain industries facing shortages of skilled tradespeople⁵ where a pool or ‘latent supply’ of potential workers exists⁶ but they do not possess up-to-date skills and/or qualifications.⁷^,⁸ This includes:

female workers who might have temporarily exited the workforce for caring or childcare responsibilities and are looking to return to work

people who might have gained skills or experience informally or on the job and are looking to build on those skills by upskilling and avoid duplication of training

those with relevant prior skills, such as migrants with overseas experience, or someone with years of hands-on work experience.⁹

By preventing duplication of training, RPL frees up:

Registered Training Organisation (RTO) resources that would have gone into delivering the qualification, training, and assessing the individual

time and effort of the trainer and assessor

the time and output of the individual who would otherwise have been receiving training they do not need

other resources relevant to compliance and regulation.

These freed-up resources can be directed towards other economic and productive activities. As a result, RPL allows us to mitigate skills shortages by expanding the talent pool, prevents the duplication of training and assessment (saving associated costs), and allows individuals to return to work or secure gainful and relevant work, all of which contributes to the skills supply and labour productivity of the economy.

Figure 1: Share of automotive occupations in shortage

_{Source: Deloitte, “Skills Shortages in the Australian Automotive Industry,” 2024.}

Occupational Recognition Services

RPL differs from the Occupational Recognition Services (ORS), which is for those who have skills that are not captured by a formal apprenticeship or traineeship, but may have sufficient skills and knowledge through work experience.¹⁰ The Motor Trades Association of South Australia and Northern Territory (MTASANT) currently offer ORS in concert with the South Australian Skills Commission and oversees the application processes to validate individuals' hands-on experience within the industry. This includes providing appropriate documentation, conducting an industry interview, skills demonstration, gap training, and a commission decision.¹¹ Some of the key advantages of ORS over RPL are that it can be more cost-effective and focuses on specific occupational requirements, skills, and work experience, which can include migrants with substantial experience who would not have undertaken a full apprenticeship.¹² Stakeholder accounts indicate the ORS system in South Australia (SA) is working well, and is something other states can replicate and learn from. ORS in SA is largely consistent across the state, whereas RPL is only consistent on a provider level, in most cases.

Challenges with RPL

RPL can be a complex and resource-intensive process. It requires tailored evaluation methods to ensure competencies meet the required standards.¹³ The Standards for RTOs require RTOs to offer RPL to students. RTOs must be able to provide evidence that demonstrates how competence was determined prior to issuing an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) qualification or statement of attainment.¹⁴

The process can be costly and time-consuming for both the individual and the RTO. The price varies by qualification but can roughly cost between $1,500 and $4,000 AUD.¹⁵ Individuals must also provide recorded evidence of their past work experience, which some find difficult to locate. In many cases, automotive workshops, particularly smaller ones, lack comprehensive digital records of past work, which can make it hard for applicants to demonstrate their experience accordingly during the RPL process. For past experience to be considered for RPL, it must come from pre-apprenticeship work or training. It cannot, for example, be used to bypass the apprenticeship or qualification that the candidate is currently enrolled in.

TAFE South Australia has observed that many students lack awareness of the time required for the RPL process and often misunderstand its purpose as an assessment mechanism rather than a training pathway. Some applicants choose not to proceed beyond the pre-assessment stage once they gain a full understanding of the process involved.

RPL and AI

Many of the challenges with RPL can be adequately mitigated, if not resolved, with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI has the ability to parse large tracts of documentation (training products) and compare them to other text (evidence of competency, description of duties, and job descriptions). Even if we cannot rely on AI to independently perform RPL assessments, it has the potential to cut down on workload and the time required to perform some of these complicated assessments. Thus allowing us to overcome most of the cost and resource related challenges associated with RPL.

RPL in the regions

Challenges with both workforce shortages and RPL are amplified in the regions (Table 1). Particularly depending on the location of RPL providers, at times, candidates might need to travel to a metropolitan area to undertake RPL. This can prove costly as it includes travel and accommodation costs to the individual. Thus, reducing the efficacy of RPL as a tool to mitigate skills shortages. On top of this, due to the complicated nature of RPL, training RTO staff for RPL can also involve having to send staff to metropolitan areas to secure training – another costly exercise.

Table 1: Automotive occupation shortages 2024

_{Source: Deloitte, Regional and metropolitan fill rates by occupation, “Skills Shortages in the Australian Automotive Industry,” 2024.}

What does the data say about RPL?

Previous research found that the Automotive Retail, Service, and Repair (AUR) package had the tenth-lowest rate (14.8%) of RPL (granted) by unit enrolment in 2018. Ranking below the comparable rail, distribution, electricity, manufacturing and engineering packages.¹⁶ This suggests that:

they may have more pathways for students to gain greater or higher-level skills pre-qualification
the nature of RPL varies across training packages and industries; for instance, the evidentiary requirements associated with automotive work and training can require workplace-based demonstration (e.g. removing an engine), which would make the assessment slightly more complicated
formal training or related licensing requirements are more integral to skill acquisition in AUR, and/or;
fewer students are able to meet standards for (granting) RPL.¹⁷

Although, RPL grant rate has been on the rise in AUR both nationally and across states (Figure 2). While this data shows these states are now making greater use of RPL it is also related to RPL volumes and processes, where jurisdictions and their VET providers differ by quantity and approach.

Figure 2: Unit enrolments for RPL and subjects achieved/passed

_{NCVER, "VET subject enrolments 2015-2024," 2024.}

What it means for skills shortages

The rate at which RPL is granted and achieved does not directly translate to alleviating skills shortages in the industry. Students typically enrol in multiple units as part of a nationally recognised Vocational Education and Training (VET) program, skill set, or even individually, which does not mean an entire qualification is fulfilled.¹⁸

Skills shortages are linked to limited VET supply, so unsuccessful RPL applications can also affect workforce shortages. However, data from each state shows that the vast majority (95.69%-100%) of applications were granted for AUR from 2015 to 2023¹⁹. Only Victoria recorded ‘not granted’ rates larger than single figures in 2023. This could therefore suggest that RPL alone may not adequately address automotive skills shortages when comparing the two factors.

With ongoing shortages of technicians and apprentices, the recent rise in both the proportion and number of unit enrolments granted through RPL is a positive development. RPL use has grown faster than overall program enrolments, as about half of this growth comes from changes in unit results rather than new enrolments. This suggests that more students may have applied for and increasingly used RPL over time. It also suggests that approximately half of this growth reflects shifts in students’ unit enrolment results, as opposed to outright increases in program enrolments driven by RPL.

Ultimately, RPL can serve as an important tool in unlocking underutilised segments of the population, such as people looking to return to work and those wanting to upskill to more productive roles. However, there are significant challenges with the implementation of RPL, including cost, effectiveness, and the inability to standardise various aspects of the process, with differences apparent on a provider level. As such, it is a useful solution for skills shortages, only in conjunction with a host of other policies, such as overseas recruitment, better and more flexible learning and training practices, recruiting from a more diverse cohort of workers, and boosting awareness and perception of careers in the Automotive industry.

Way forward  

People, skills, and partnerships

A diverse workforce can be less prone to critical shortages. Increasing female and First Nations participation can help alleviate and manage future skills shortages.

Support upskilling in new technologies to future-proof the workforce

Build a system of lifelong learning and align to future skills needs

Leverage tripartite partnerships under the Jobs and Skills Council (JSC) ecosystem to co-design qualifications and micro credentials that reflect real-time operational needs

For industry

Expanding recruitment strategies in regional areas to attract students and young people into the automotive industry can enable a more diverse workforce and help prevent critical skills shortages

For governments, regulators, and pathway providers