The federal government will invest $402 million over the next four years to establish Jobs and Skills Councils (JSCs) to help address skills shortages and broader workforce challenges.
Formerly known as Industry Clusters, the new JSCs will operate from January and have a strong connection to Jobs and Skills Australia, aligning with the government’s plans for new industry engagement arrangements.
Led by industry, the JSCs will bring all parties to the table to find solutions to the workforce challenges and skills needs facing industry sectors across Australia.
Skills and training minister Brendan O’Connor said a commitment to tripartite leadership would bring together employers and unions that work in partnership with governments and the training sector.
Ten industry groupings were announced as the outcomes from Stage One of the Grant Opportunity process:
O’Connor said that JSCs would work in partnership with Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) to align workforce planning for their sectors.
O’Connor said: “This is an essential first step in determining job roles, skills needs and training pathways, combining industry-specific intelligence with JSA’s forecasting and modelling.
“This will be crucial in making sure industry has the right workers with the right skills that Australia needs.”
JSCs will operate as a national network of industry owned and industry led organisations, working collaboratively to improve system responsiveness, build stakeholder confidence and drive high-quality outcomes for the VET sector, learners and business.
JSCs will identify skills and workforce needs for their sectors, map career pathways across education sectors, develop VET training products, support collaboration between industry and training providers to improve training and assessment practice and act as a source of intelligence on issues affecting their industries.
“This is a fundamental shift in the way industry engagement is undertaken in the VET sector and will help us tackle one of the greatest economic challenges in decades, namely the lack of skilled workers.”
Meanwhile the existing arrangements of the 67 Industry Reference Committees will be wound up by the end of 2022.
All successful applicants will now commence their establishment phase to set up their entities ahead of progressing to Stage Two of the Grant Opportunity, which will be open from December 2022.
Picture: Brendan O’Connor