Training a skilled workforce

THE My Skills website will provide valuable information.

INCOMING Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox is correct when he says the nation's flagging productivity requires investment in skills and quality jobs training.

It remains to be seen, however, whether the measures Julia Gillard has announced over recent months, which she reannounced and elaborated on in a speech in Canberra yesterday, prove more effective for students and employers than previous job schemes such as the Keating government's Working Nation initiative. Already, Western Australia is shaping for a fight at next month's Council of Australian Governments meeting.

On the positive side, the Gillard government has worked closely with industry to identify the areas in which more skilled workers are needed, and its approach is geared to preparing students for the challenges of the real world. The Prime Minister's My Skills website, which will be similar to the successful My School website, will be a useful tool to allow students to compare the performances of training providers. They will need to do so as many will leave TAFE and other colleges owing money through HECS-style loans. In the past, too many training courses have been of little benefit to students but a gravy train for public sector teachers and others teaching them outside regular hours.

The prospect of accumulating a HECS debt will hopefully encourage students to think carefully about job opportunities before enrolling in vocational courses. Many could set themselves up for the future much better by venturing out of their comfort zones to build up their skills and bank balances where jobs are plentiful -- in the mining industry.

Australia needs better trained workers in the fields identified by Ms Gillard, such as clean energy, advanced manufacturing, mining, construction, financial and property services, health, aged care, new media and design. Many of those fields, however, require university qualifications. If the states, the federal government and industry are to co-operate to improve training, they must strike the right balance between equipping students to fill employers' needs, without over-emphasising technical skills that could be redundant in a few years. Regardless of whether students leave school to work or attend TAFE or university, the best preparation for a competitive world is a strong grounding in maths, English and science.