Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers will lead the Jobs and Skills Summit on September 1 and 2 in Parliament House.
The Jobs and Skills summit will bring together 100 humans - from unions, commerce and industry, civil society and governments - to address economic challenges and “a serious labour supply shortage,”
Some on the guest list include
- Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar
- iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest - have been invited and are planning to attend.
- Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce,
- Coles chief executive Steven Cain
- Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci.
- Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott;
- Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox
- Ai Group head of education and training Megan Lilly;
- Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar.
- Australian Banking Association CEO (and former Queensland premier) Anna Bligh;
- Minerals Council of Australia CEO Tania Constable;
- National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson;
- Australian Retailers Association CEO Paul Zahra;
- Australian Constructors Association CEO Jon Davies;
- Master Builders Association national president Simon Butt.
- Council of Small Business Organisations Australiachief executive Alexi Boyd
- Rio Tinto Australia chief executive Kellie Parker
The goal of the summit is to focus on unemployment, skills shortage , wages growth, long-term management of skills and equal opportunity for woman and disadvantaged Australians.
Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O’Connor said:
“One of the biggest challenges facing businesses is they are struggling to find workers with the skills for the jobs available.”
It is projected that over the next five years, nine out of 10 jobs will require a post-secondary qualification, according the Albanese government.
They recognise that the VET sector will play an important part in looking to solve this wicked problem - it is “an important stepping stone on the path to a good career”
How can we use the VeT sector as a tool to upskill reskill and change the focus of our population to “life long learners”?
The Skills Priority List, data on job vacancies and projected growth in employment over the next five years are
· Construction Managers
· Civil Engineering Professionals
· Early Childhood (Pre-primary School) Teachers
· Registered Nurses
· ICT Business and Systems Analysts
· Software and Applications Programmers
. Electricians
· Chefs
· Child Carers
· Aged and Disabled Carers
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recognises the importance of the VET sector stating that
“Our goal is to build a strong VET sector to help more Australians get secure, well-paying jobs, while providing the skilled workers that business needs to grow our economy,”
“A robust skills and training sector is critical to driving a productive workforce - this will deliver a stronger economy and more affordable goods and services.”
“This summit is not a magic bullet that will solve all the problems. It will take time, commitment and continuous focus and investment to build our population into one of life long learners .” Says Ivan Kaye Chairman of BSI and Business Builders Group
A National reconstruction fund is being proposed and Treasury will invite submissions and engage the wider community over the next year with Industry to develop programmes to improve level of skills
How to solve the shortages of trained people The tech Sector
Atlassian’s Scott Farquhar said more training was crucial for the technology sector, and he if the country could not train enough people, it should look to migration.
Alison Kitchen of kpmg agrees
Training is needed to reskill and upskill people into this sector .
At a Roundtable on Monday focussed on discrimination, support, and skills growth for people living with disability -Tech Council of Australia chief executive Kate Pounder said the technology sector shortage could probably be mitigated by employing people with disability, estimating that it employs between 1-4 per cent of the working age population with disability,”
(COsBoa) Australia chief executive Alexi Boyd said that upskilling and reskilling people living with disability would go to addressing workforce shortages.
The Summit will cover six broad themes:
- Maintaining full employment and growing productivity.
- Boosting job security and wages.
- Lifting participation and reducing barriers to employment.
- Delivering a high-quality labour force through skills, training and migration.
- maximising jobs and opportunities from renewable energy, tackling climate change, the digital economy, the care economy and a Future Made in Australia
- Innovation - with a focus on diversity equity and inclusion
“How can we best take advantage of structural changes like digitalisation, climate change, the shift to renewable energy, the ageing population, and growth in the services sector and care economy to boost productivity and sustain full employment?” Asks Minister Chalmers of Treasury
Treasury’s focus
There are a number of trends in the Australian economy that will have a significant bearing on our prosperity over the medium to long term including:
• The increasing importance of the care economy, particularly as our population ages, and the increasing focus on, and uptake of, early childhood education, which is closely linked to women’s workforce participation.
• The impacts of climate change, the shift to cleaner and cheaper energy, and the adoption of new and emerging technologies, which have implications for business models, workforce needs and government policies.
• Increased digitalisation, which will change the nature of work and increase demand for workers with high levels of digital and data literacy.
These discussions will feed into Labor’s $1.2 billion pledge to provide free TAFE courses and thousands of new university places.
Half-a-million free TAFE positions
The Albanese government has also announced it will deliver $850 million in funding for 465,000 fee-free TAFE places and for TAFE infrastructure.
On top of this, the government will be creating 45,000 TAFE places for industries suffering acute shortages.
It will also create 10,000 apprentice places in the new energy sector, with the aim of one in 10 workers engaged on federally funded government projects as an apprentice or trainee.
Support for Private Vet Sector ?
It will be interesting to explore how the private sector will be able to also be part of the solution to upskill and reskill the workforce and encourage a culture of lifelong learning
“That students continue to trust independent skills training providers has been reinforced by the data that shows the independent sector supported 3,743,295 students, that’s 87.1% of all students in skills training. This is an increase of 423,890 students compared to twelve months earlier.”