SA skills survey to help cater to growing demand
ABOUT 247,000 qualifications, most of them vocational, will need to be delivered in five years to meet industry demands, according to the Training and Skills Commission.
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ABOUT 247,000 qualifications, most of them vocational, will need to be delivered by 2022 to meet industry demands, according to the Training and Skills Commission.
About 70 per cent of those employed will be expected by industry to have a non-school qualification and VET qualifications will account for approximately two-thirds of industry-driven qualification demand.
“As our economy grows and changes, our most important responsibility is to ensure that SA’s training system is delivering the skills that industry needs, particularly in key growth sectors,” Commission chair Michael Boyce said.
Having a labour force with a high level of foundation skills is critical to ensuring the state can provide the skilled workers needed in the future, including for the growing employment opportunities in defence, food and wine processing, advanced manufacturing, the National
Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and health care.
The Commission provides independent, strategic advice to the government on vocational education and training investment and part of its work includes modelling future industry demand for skills and careers.
Mr Boyce urged employers across all sectors to respond to the Industry Priority Qualifications (IPQ) survey, which is designed to gather information on the skills and qualifications needed by industry.
“Industry representatives provided significant input into the methodology of the survey, which is collecting the views of a range of users of the vocational education and training system to identify the priority qualifications required for each major industry sector,” Mr Boyce said.
“Information gathered through this year’s survey will help foster a competitive, business-friendly environment that creates real employment opportunities for South Australians.”
The survey results will allow greater weighting of industry input and will inform the state government’s skills investment planning, particularly the Subsidised Training List.
The Commission will also use the results to help formulate its Training Priorities Plan, which will be presented to Industry and Skills Minister David Pisoni.
The state government is investing $100 million and has access to another $87 million from the Federal Government to support an additional 20,000 work-based apprenticeships and traineeships over the next four years.
There were 14,725 apprentices and trainees in training in SA at the end of last year — down from 30,690 in 2013, according to data from the National Centre for Vocational Education and Research.
The previous IPQ survey was conducted in 2015 and generated 850 individual responses from representatives from across all industry sectors.
Mr Boyce said they were valuable in guiding public skills investment, and as a tool for industry to better understand and compare qualifications priorities across sectors.
The IPQ survey closes on July 15.
Results will be presented at targeted industry consultations from late August, with the final report available in December 2018.
The survey is available at www.tasc.sa.gov.au
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