On 5 November 2025, Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) hosted a webinar to mark the release of our discussion paper ‘Building a system that puts people and skills first’ – a significant milestone in the development of the National Skills Taxonomy (NST).
Deputy Commissioner Megan Lilly provided an overview of the paper, explaining:
- the need to reduce complexity in Australia’s skills system through a skills-first approach
- why a skills-first approach requires a common definition and language for skills
- how the NST enables a skills-first approach by creating a common skills language to support fairer skills recognition, better workforce planning and future-ready career pathways.
In her presentation, she also introduced the proposed definition of ‘skill’ and the framework for the NST.
Megan Lilly was joined by Dr Caroline Smith, Executive Director of the Centre for Education and Training at Ai Group and Liam O’Brien, Assistant Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) for the ‘In Conversation’ segment of the webinar.
Together, they tackled questions from the audience about the difference between knowledge and skills, how to improve worker mobility between sectors and jurisdictions, and the challenges of building a dynamic, human-centred NST.
Watch the webinar recording.
