WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AND THE FUTURE OF THE NATIONAL TRAINING SYSTEM

On Thursday 19th I attended the NSW Community Services and Health – ITAB Forum. The key speaker at the event was Phillip Bullock who is the chair of SKILLS Australia and who talked about the future of our National Training System. This is a summary of some ideas presented at the Forum:

· SKILLS Australia was formed to deal with a changing economy and society
· Government policy needs to respond to the following questions: what kind of industries will emerge in the future? What kind of skills and capacities will we be required to develop? Do we have the capacity to respond to these challenges?
· There are clear drivers and trends that will shape the future of industries and skills. The economy will depend on Asian markets and demands, climate change will be the central theme, there will be more integrated technologies and Australian society will be demographically more diverse and with an ageing groups
· Skills Australia will be focused on workforce development issues.
· Workforce development is built on three elements: participation, up-skilling and skills utilization

In order to answer these three questions: Where are we headed?, Where do we want to be? And How do we get there?

Skills Australia conducted three activities:
· 1. identifying major workforce and education trends for the next few decades. This was done by analysing historical data.
· 2. three scenarios were developed as a future planning tool for an uncertain environment. An open and closed economy were the first two scenarios and the current status quo was the third. Policy directions and responses were developed according to each scenario.
· 3. Access Economics conducted a number of models and projections based on economic data.

SKILLS Australia received the following feedback from their consultations
· There is clear support for a national approach to workforce development, but not to centralised control
· Encourage holistic, multi-faceted action (eg training, stimulus, tax incentives)
· Greater role of Government is needed
· Improve numeracy, literacy and generic core skills
· Support of new jobs and new industries
· Future role of immigration in addressing skill shortages
· Ongoing targeted focus on participation

Some areas of future changes affecting the training system
· Tighten AQTF 2007 framework
· Purchasing contracts to drive day-to-day quality
· Use information to improve accountability, performance and choice
· Establish a national regulator

MF

"Towards an Australian Workforce Development Strategy" discussion paper

Dear TDN members
Skills Australia has launched this discussion paper to frame national consultations on how to best meet the nation's future skills needs. "Workforce Futures" presents a case for a changed focus in how Australia approaches planning for our future skills.
I have attached the link to download this document for your perusal.

http://www.deewr.gov.au/Skills/Programs/skillsaustralia/Documents/WorkforceFuturesOverview1.pdf

MF

NCVR Paper: "Practitioner experiences and expectations with the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment"

Through a number of interviews and surveys with teachers and practitioners, this paper explores experiences and expectations upon completion of the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. Also, this research explores issues such as uneven quality, incosistencies in delivery and the perceived inability ot meet the skills and knowledge of future trainers.
It is worth reading it.

http://www.ncver.edu.au/research/proj/nr08504r.pdf

MF

Sydney Facilitators Network - November meeting

You are cordially invited:

Graphic Facilitation with Nancy White

This session explores how images and drawing can help with the facilitation process.

Whether you are an artist or not (especially if you think you aren't), we will be painting, drawing, smudging and crayoning.

Nancy White has worked with organisations as diverse as the World Health Organization, IBM, IEEE & the International Labor Organization. She is the co-author of "Digital Habitats" with Etienne Wenger & John Smith.


Venue:
University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Jones Street, Ultimo corner Thomas Street.
Room 5.580 Level 5, Building 10, Take the lift to level 5, cross the atrium foot bridge, walk straight ahead to room 580.

Time:
from 5:30pm to 7:30pm sharp No RSVP - Just turn up