Efforts to contain COVID-19 through lockdowns and social distancing prompted swift changes to the delivery of vocational education and training (VET), with questions subsequently arising about the impact of this rapid transition on students and trainers/assessors. This report, the first of two reports for this project, explores the VET sector's response to COVID-19 through the increasing use of online training and assessment. The overall objective of this two-report study is to investigate the immediate response to COVID-19 by examining the transition from a face-to-face learning environment to online training and assessment. The study also aims to understand how registered training organisations (RTOs) navigated the changes necessitated by the pandemic. The two data sources informing this report are total VET activity (TVA) data for 2019 and 2020 and high-level findings from an online survey of RTOs, administered in collaboration with the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA). The intention of this report is to provide an initial indication of how the VET sector responded to COVID-19.