Education and training industry

The education and training industry includes:

• private education and training providers that operate for profit
• tutoring businesses 
• dducational gaming apps and other online platforms
• coaching businesses.

Industry research is an important part of planning for your business, it may help you identify:

• economic and industry trends
• establish or improve your business
• help you keep pace with your industry.

See statistics about Australian industry and Education on the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) website. 

The Australian Tax Office provides a range of industry benchmarks to help you compare your business's performance against similar businesses in your industry. Read about the benchmarks for tutoring and coaching.

The Department of Education has a range of data, statistics and publications. See data for higher education and international education. 

Check out the profile for the education and training industry, on the Labour Market Insights website. This will give you an idea of what's happening in the Australian job market.

It’s important that you are aware of the laws that apply to the education and training industry. Key legislation and standards include:

• Australian Consumer Law
• Competition and Consumer Act 2010
• Education services for overseas students (ESOS) legal framework
• Intellectual Property legislation
• Privacy Act 1988
• Australian Privacy Principles
• Vocational education and training (VET) Quality Framework
• VET sector legislation and standards.

Federal, state, territory and local governments manage the licences and permits for the education and training industry. You may need to consider: 

• registered training organisation (RTO) approval
• copyright licence - to reproduce media content for educational purposes 
• education services for overseas students (ESOS) approval  
• teaching registration
• working with vulnerable people registration.

Education and Training industry businesses have specific goods and services tax (GST) measures. It’s important that you know your GST obligations and to make sure you register with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to ensure you can claim your GST credits.

There are general work health and safety regulations for all businesses, however there are state and territory WHS requirements that apply to businesses in the education and training industry:

• ACT - WorkSafe
• NSW - SafeWork
• NT - WorkSafe
• QLD - WorkSafe
• SA - SafeWork
• TAS - WorkSafe
• VIC - WorkSafe
• WA - WorkSafe.

It is important to protect your intellectual property when starting and growing your business. ‘Intellectual property’ (IP) is the creation of original ideas, inventions or brands.

If you have a business in the education and training industry, you may need to consider different types of IP. For example, this may be a patent for a new educational system, a trademark to protect your brand or a design for a new educational resource.