There has been considerable growth during the past years in the Events sector, with various types of events and exhibitions planned across Australia. These events include gatherings for both business and leisure-purposes for international and domestic visitors and include:
The Exhibition and Events sector encompasses companies involved in organising and hosting exhibitions, events and conferences. The sector is rapidly growing and making significant contributions to the economy and is expected to experience continued growth in the future.
Employers in this sector include businesses involved in event and/or meeting management, venue owners, hotels/venues with accommodation, audio-visual/production organisations and exhibition suppliers. Examples of occupations include Event or Exhibition Assistants, Conference or Engagement Coordinators, Venue Coordinators and/or Organisers.
Nationally recognised training for Conference and Event Organisers is delivered under the SIT - Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Training Package.
For more information on the Cookery, Hospitality, and Tourism please visit the respective pages.
Information sourced from the most recently available Skills Forecast, the Tourism, Travel and Hospitality IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast.
All data sources are available at the end of the page.
The Tourism, Travel and Hospitality IRC was not required to submit an annual update to their 2019 Skills Forecast during 2020. As such, the version published in 2019 remains the most recently published Skills Forecast for this industry.
Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Industry Reference Committee
Please note: any employment projections outlined below were calculated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics prior to COVID-19.
The employment level for Conference and Event Organisers more than tripled between 2000 and 2019, increasing from around 10,400 to 38,700. Employment levels have since declined significantly to 24,400 in 2020. Employment projections predict a growth in employment levels to 46,900 by 2024. According to the 2016 census approximately 60% of Conference and Event Organisers are concentrated in 10 industries, with the majority working in the Administrative Services industries.
In 2019 there were close to 4,810 program enrolments in events-related qualifications and approximately 1,470 completions, enrolments are up slightly on 2018 while completions continue to decline. Overall these figures, particularly enrolments, have dropped substantially from 2015 when there were approximately 10,930 enrolments and 2,410 completions.
All enrolments were either at the certificate III (44%) or diploma or higher (56%) level. These enrolments occurred in the Certificate III in Events (44%) with the intended occupation of General Clerk, and Event Management (Diploma & Advanced Diploma) (56%) which had the intended occupation of Conference and Event Organiser.
Close to three quarters (73%) of training was delivered by TAFE institutes, while private training providers delivered 22%. Over half of all training was Commonwealth and state funded (59%), followed by international fee for service (29%) and domestic fee for service (12%). There was some variation between provider type, with domestic fee for service and international fee for service notably higher among private training providers (34% and 55% respectively), while 73% of training provided at TAFE institutes were Commonwealth and state funded.
Approximately one third of students resided in New South Wales (33%), followed by overseas (23%), Victoria (17%) and Queensland (11%). Training was mainly delivered in New South Wales (43%), Victoria (19%), Queensland (16%) and Western Australia (10%).
There were very few apprentice and trainee commencements and completions in events-related qualifications as at December 2019, with just 24 commencements (up marginally from 21 in 2018) and 10 completions (compared to 12 in 2018). Since reporting began in 2010 the peak for commencements was close to 150 in 2011, while completions peaked the following year at just under 100. Figures have declined significantly for both since then.
For more data specific to your occupation, industry or training package, please visit NCVER’s VET Students by Industry. If you are prompted to log in, please select cancel and you will continue to be directed to the program.
For more data specific to your region visit NCVER’s Atlas of Total VET.
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According to the Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Industry IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast, the top priority skills for the industry (inclusive of the Events sector), are:
In addition to these priority skills, the job vacancy data shows that communication, planning, organisational skills, detail-orientated and creativity were the top generic skills in demand by employers. According to job advertisements, the top occupations in demand were Event Coordinator, Event Manager and Venue Manager, with the New South Wales Government and Australian Government identified as the main employers.
The Tourism, Travel and Hospitality IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast highlights the impact of trends in digitalisation and technological innovation, growing international competition, workforce mobility, and increasing customer demand and expectations for live experiences, on the Events sector. These trends have meant a shift in the skills and knowledge required of the workforce. In order to meet these changing skills and knowledge requirements, a Case for Change has been submitted which proposes an update of qualifications and related units of competency and skills sets for the Event and Exhibition sector.
Below is a list of industry-relevant research, organisations and associations. Hyperlinks have been included where available.
Events Qualifications – Case for Change – SkillsIQ
Australian Trade Commission (Austrade)
South Australian Tourism Commission
NSW Business Chamber - Tourism
Queensland Tourism Industry Council
Tasmanian Hospitality Association
Tourism Industry Council South Australia
Victoria Tourism Industry Council
Accommodation Association of Australia
Australian Culinary Federation
Australian Regional Tourism Network
Australian Tourism Export Council
Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia
Restaurant & Catering Australia
Tourism Accommodation Australia
Tourism Hospitality Catering Institute of Australia
Tourism and Transport Forum Australia
Department of Employment 2020, Employment Projections, available from the Labour Market Information Portal
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2020, Employed persons by Occupation unit group of main job (ANZSCO), Sex, State and Territory, August 1986 onwards, 6291.0.55.003 - EQ08, viewed 1 August 2020 https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/6291.0.55.003May%202020?OpenDocument
Employed total by ANZSCO 1493 Conference and Event Organisers, 2000 to 2020, May quarter.
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2017, 2016 Census – employment, income and unpaid work, TableBuilder. Findings based on use of ABS TableBuilder data.
Training data has been extracted from the National VET Provider Collection, Total VET Student and Courses from the following training package or qualifications:
This includes superseded qualifications and training packages.
Data covers a range of selected student and training characteristics in the following categories and years:
Total VET students and courses data is reported for the calendar year. Program enrolments are the qualifications, courses and skill-sets in which students are enrolled in a given period. For students enrolled in multiple programs, all programs are counted. Program completion indicates that a student has completed a structured and integrated program of education or training. Location data uses student residence. Subject enrolment is registration of a student at a training delivery location for the purpose of undertaking a module, unit of competency or subject. For more information on the terms and definitions, please refer to the Total VET students and courses: terms and definitions document.
Low counts (less than 5) are not reported to protect client confidentiality.
Percentages are rounded to one decimal place. This can lead to situations where the total sum of proportions in a chart may not add up to exactly 100%.
SIT Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Training Package apprentice and trainee data has been extracted from the National Apprentice and Trainee collection, including:
Priority skills data have been extracted from the Tourism, Travel and Hospitality IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast.
Job vacancy data have been extracted from Burning Glass Technologies 2020, Labor Insight Real-time Labor Market Information Tool, Burning Glass Technologies, Boston, viewed July 2020, https://www.burning-glass.com.
Data shown represent most requested generic skills, occupations and employers according to internet job postings in Australia between July 2017 and June 2020 filtered by ANZSIC and ANZSCO classification levels listed below.
ANZSCO occupations have been used as industry filters because they provide more relevant job vacancy data for this sector.
