While 65% of Australian businesses have discussed their training needs with universities, just 8% ended up contracting universities for training, according to new research.
A survey by Twig Marketing of representatives of more than 250 companies across five States conducted in the 12 months to May 2025 found that inflexible curriculum, relevance, cost and attitude were all key issues leading to businesses seeking out alternative training providers.
A surprisingly high 84% of respondents who had engaged with a university seeking training said they would rate the experience as poor.
“Businesses across a wide range of industries told us they had a high regard for the quality of university training, but the lack of flexibility in course offerings and an unwillingness to deliver what companies wanted meant that many felt frustrated,” Twig Marketing Director Tim Winkler said.
“Companies talked about university staff coming in trying to sell them a degree program without taking time to listen to what they actually needed for their business.”
“We embarked on this survey when we set up our Higher Education to Business (HE2B) program, linking business training to universities, which we established because we had already had a wide range of businesses complain about their frustrations in trying to access accredited and nonaccredited training from universities.
“We conducted the research as a way to document our conversations with a range of employers and begin to build a clearer picture of the issues.”
Just 8% of Australian businesses responding to market research by Twig Marketing had ever used Universities for a portion of their workforce training – a training market currently estimated to be worth $8 billion per year.
The majority of those that used universities for training were satisfied with the result. Analysis of feedback from the more than 250 companies in five States across Australia who participated in the survey indicates that while there is a perception that university training will be high quality, universities are missing a large portion of the training market because of a lack of flexibility around course offerings, the length of courses, training that did not meet industry needs, cost and the attitude of university staff.
The survey indicates there is potential for universities to attract a larger slice of the training market if they are open to new models of delivery and engagement, but more detailed and systematic research is required to better understand the market.
The survey comes as the new Adelaide University is moving to decluster its units in a massive approach to curriculum renewal, seeking to build its enrolment base through off-campus and online delivery by providing more flexible offerings, as revealed in the recent Future Campus conversation with Vice-Chancellors David Lloyd and Peter Hoj.
Tim Winkler is Director of Twig Marketing and Publisher of Future Campus.