The prime minister and state and territory leaders have agreed on a vision statement and guiding principles for a new national skills agreement ahead of the jobs and skills summit.
The agreement is due to come into effect in 2024, Anthony Albanese told reporters on Wednesday after a national cabinet meeting in Sydney.
In the March budget, the Morrison government pledged $12 billion over five years towards such an agreement designed to bring more consistency to vocational education and training funding.
With national cabinet support, the Labor government will be able to start work on its own deal.
The lack of investment in TAFE and vocational education and training has been raised as an issue in the lead-up to the jobs summit, with unions and business groups joining forces to call for more funding for training organisations.
Mr Albanese said he was pleased with the high level of cooperation seen in ahead of the summit.
"People have conflict fatigue, people are looking for solutions and not arguments," he said.
"I feel very positive about not just the next two days, but for what it symbolises ... a new era of collaboration, a new era of inclusiveness."
The Australian Council of Trade Unions wants summit attendees to remember the real people affected by wage stagnation, poor conditions and cost of living pressures.
"It shouldn't be acceptable to anyone at the job summit that the profit share of national income is going up at the same time that the wages share is at historic lows," ACTU secretary Sally McManus told reporters in Canberra.
"It's absolutely essential that we move forward with new collective bargaining models - it should be obvious to everyone that it is needed."
The federal government revealed the final guest list for the much anticipated two-day summit with 142 representatives from unions, community organisations, universities, government and business making the cut.
Among them is mining magnate Andrew Forrest, Atlassian boss Scott Farquhar and Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce.
As many as 28 union representatives have been invited, including participants from the ACTU, the Community and Public Sector Union and the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union.
Coles and Woolworths bosses also secured a spot, as did BHP and Rio Tinto chiefs.
Academics from several fields of expertise will attend, as well as representatives from clean energy groups, gender equality groups and disability rights advocacy organisations.
Deciding the final guest list was a difficult balance to strike, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.
"To those who are not on the list, we've tried our best to get around to all parts of the economy and all parts of the country in the lead-up," he told reporters in Canberra.
"The reality is you can't invite everyone that you would like ... we've got a good representative cross section of the Australian economy and community."
The Liberal Party will not be sending a representative, something deputy leader Sussan Ley said she had "not one single regret" about.
Nationals leader David Littleproud, who has accepted an invitation, said worker shortages were more acute in the regions.
"I've come back from Western Australia - people are walking away from their farms that were born on their farm, and are moving away because they don't have the confidence of having a labour source that will pick the crops that they plant," he told ABC News.
The summit would have a strong focus on the union movement, which would result in mass strikes, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said.
"I don't think for small business people the hopes are very high as to what can be achieved," he told the ABC.
"It's not in businesses' interest, it's not in our economy's interests, it's not in the workers' interest either."
