As business cries out for staff, millions lack basic skills

As manufacturers nationwide cry out for staff the federal government is tackling one of the root causes of the problem – a lack of foundational learning skills in the Australian workforce.

Minister for Skills and Training, Brendan O’Connor announced a new foundational skills study by Jobs and Skills Australia into critical skills such as the ability to read, write, and engage with technology.

O’Connor said the OECD had estimated that three million Australian adults lack these fundamental skills, however this data is more than a decade old and ‘it is incumbent on the Australian Government to improve its data collection to support these people’.

This estimate means around one in five Australian adults lack the basic literacy, numeracy and digital skills to participate fully in work and life, which the minister said was a shocking statistic, particularly for a developed nation which should be doing better.

O’Connor said: “The system has failed these people and for the sake of equity, inclusion and economic growth we need to act.

“We are facing the tightest labour market in decades, and there is a pool of Australians that businesses are not tapping into because they lack the prerequisite skills most jobs require.

“Not only are these skills core to education and work, they are fundamental to life. These are the skills most of us take for granted like reading a note sent home from school, putting together a shopping list, or paying a bill online.

“A developed nation and advanced economy like Australia should not be letting these people down.”

Part of the government’s commitment to understanding the national skills crisis involves a Foundation Skills Study whichwill be led by Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA)

As a first step in delivering the Foundation Skills Study, a discussion paper was been released by JSA for feedback and will assist in providing more accurate data.

O’Connor said: “The Albanese Government is preparing and implementing game changing reforms in the vocational education and training sector.

“Our Fee-Free TAFE initiative removes the financial barrier to education. Now we must remove the barriers of shame and distrust of education, which is locking so many people out of accessing important training programmes.

“Collecting new and better data is crucial and is critical to ensuring the Foundation Skills Study delivers on the promise of building an evidence base for foundation skills in Australia.”

The foundation skills study has three elements:

• A survey of Australian adults to assess their current literacy, numeracy and digital skills levels
• A feasibility study into how best to assess the literacy, numeracy and digital literacy levels of First Nations Australians
• And analysis of Commonwealth administrative and other data to ‘drill down’ into the results for priority groups.

Picture: Brendan O’Connor