Large Employer of the Year

The Large Employer of the Year Award recognises large businesses and enterprises that have achieved excellence in the provision of nationally recognised training to their employees.

To be eligible for shortlisting for the Australian Training Awards, the organisation’s head office must be located in South Australia.

  • Sponsored by TAFE SA

    Sponsored by TAFE SA

    TAFE SA’s role as the public provider of vocational education and training (VET) is to ensure all South Australians have access to quality education and skills training across the state.

    With the growth in demand for skills in current, new and emerging industries, the importance of addressing skills shortages and increasing the state’s skilled workforce has never been greater.

    It is the programs that TAFE SA delivers to target diverse student cohorts, right across the state that ensures current and future generations have the skills they need.  

    Courses are aligned to the needs of the state’s current and future workforce, ensuring TAFE SA is responsive, relevant and future focused.

    TAFE SA’s passionate and dedicated staff are strengthening partnerships with industry to work collaboratively in new and different ways while also working with education providers across Australia, creating an open sharing of knowledge, resources and information.

    LEARN MORE

Nominations for the 2026 South Australian Training Awards are now closed

Judging will be underway in June/July, with finalists announced in August 2026. Stay tuned for updates ahead of the Gala Presentation to announce the winners on 11 September 2026.

Past winners

Eligibility criteria

Your organisation must:

  • employ 100 or more full-time equivalent employees
  • deliver nationally recognised vocational education and training to your employees that leads to formal qualifications or Statements of Attainment issued by a registered training organisation under the Australian Qualifications Framework.
  • demonstrate employees are working in South Australia.

The South Australian Training Awards accepts applications from:

  • individual employers
  • a partnership between a single Host Employer and a single Group Training Organisation – noting that host Employers or Group Training Organisations who nominate for the award are required to have their partner agree to the nomination.

Nominations will not be accepted from organisations whose core business is VET. These organisations may consider nominating for the Small or Large Training Provider of the Year categories.

2026 Conditions of Entry

Preparing your nomination

Section A: Business Summary

Provide a brief description of your business, including the products or services that you offer and any major milestones you have achieved.

(Limit: 500 words)

This information will not be considered or used for judging purposes, but it may be used as your summary throughout the Awards process.

Section B: Selection criteria

Applicants will be judged against the following criteria:

Consider:

  • your involvement in designing training and/or assessment specifically for your business, either alone or in partnership with training organisations
  • the qualifications or courses that your employees are undertaking
  • the percentage of your employees who are actively engaged in training
  • hours per month (average) that your employees spend in training
  • how you integrate on-the-job and off-the-job training.

(Limit: 800 words)

Consider how:

  • training has improved the productivity and wellbeing of your employees (briefly describe the personal VET achievements of a few of your staff)
  • training has improved your relationships with clients
  • training has improved the productivity and profitability of your business
  • you measure the benefits of training
  • training will improve your business in the future.

(Limit: 800 words)

Consider:

  • the training aims of your business
  • the ‘training culture’ you have established within your business
  • how training fits into your workforce development and business planning
  • how you have formalised an ongoing commitment to training
  • how you find out about the training needs of your employees.

(Limit: 800 words)

Consider:

  • details of creativity, innovation and excellence in the design, development and delivery of training and assessment for your employees
  • innovative methods that you use to create positive relationships or partnerships with others to enhance the effectiveness of your training and assessment
  • innovative approaches that you use to encourage access to training for your employees (e.g. mentoring, e-learning, collaborative learning).

Limit: 800 words

Consider:

  • the training you have made available to employees who are from groups under-represented in employment, education and training (such as people with disabilities, Indigenous people, people from non-English speaking backgrounds, people in older age groups, people living in remote areas)
  • the number of these employees who have actively engaged in training
  • the number of these employees who have actively trained for managerial or supervisory jobs
  • the training programs that have been specifically designed for these employees.

(Limit: 800 words)

Attachments

Up to ten single A4 page attachments to be provided at a 100 percent ratio, with one document per page.

All attachments need to be referenced in the nomination.

Download the South Australian Training Awards 2026 Nominations Guide

Download PDF

2026 Key Dates

1 May 2026 Nominations close
June - July Judging process
August Awards finalists announced
11 September South Australian Training Awards Gala Presentation
October - November Professional Development Program for winners in preparation for the Australian Training Awards
Late November Australian Training Awards