Edition 76, March 2010

Skills Australia workforce development report released

A national workforce development strategy released by Skills Australia calls for a fundamental overhaul in the way the nation approaches and supports workforce development.

The Australian Workforce Futures strategy released by Skills Australia states that Australia risks missing out on the full benefits of future global economic growth and the dividends from its investment in education unless it commits to a significant increase in the workforce participation level over the next 15 years, and takes urgent and immediate action to raise adult core skills including language, literacy and numeracy levels.

The strategy recommends that there is a critical need for Australian employers to more effectively use the skills of the existing workforce. 

Skills Australia Chair Phillip Bullock said a National Workforce Development Strategy provides Australia with the framework for effectively tackling skills and workforce issues.  

"Tackling this challenge is not just the responsibility of governments-industry and employers have a crucial role to play as well," Mr Bullock said.

"There is definitely room for Australia to improve in terms of workforce participation levels, particularly among some groups, such men of prime working age, women aged 25 to 34, and older Australians.

"We believe Australia should aim to raise its overall participation rate by four per cent, to 69 per cent, by 2025. This is an ambitious target given our ageing workforce but certainly achievable with the right measures and a genuine commitment from governments, industry, employers and education providers. An increase of this magnitude would place us in the top league of OECD countries in terms of participation levels.

"We've also called for a comprehensive national adult language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) strategy to lift the unacceptably low LLN levels. 40 to 50 per cent of the working age population has low literacy and numeracy skills, and there's been little improvement in recent years."

Other recommendations in Australian Workforce Futures include:

  • providing additional funding to the education and training sector to meet the cost of helping more Australians-particularly vulnerable learners and the disadvantaged-gain additional qualifications to meet future workforce demands
  • targeting 'specialised occupations' to address emerging and future skills shortages
  • using public training funds to encourage workforce development at the enterprise level; and establishing a new 'Workforce Development Observatory' to promote best practice.

For more information on Australian Workforce Futures visit www.skillsaustralia.gov.au

This page was generated on 13 April, 2010

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