Skills Insight Jobs and Skills Council now Established

Skills Insight has begun work as a Jobs and Skills Council (JSC), contributing to an ambitious new program to strengthen Australia’s VET system. Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O'Connor and Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Murray Watt announced the establishment at the end of May.

The JSC program strives for a holistic approach, with collaboration across all ten JSCs and all parts of the skills system, broadening and deepening the reach from the previous program.

Skills Insight’s role as a JSC is to support strategic industry leadership and undertake research activities looking at skills and workforce challenges, with a specific focus on improving the VET system and industry participation in it. Skills Insight will work with stakeholders to take a wide view of skills issues and potential solutions to improve outcomes for industry, learners, trainers and employers.

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Skills Insight’s industry coverage includes primary production, plants and animals, forestry and timber, textiles, clothing, footwear and furnishing, and emerging industries around natural resource security and environmental management. Skills Insight said, ‘they are proud to be able to work with a group of industries that are crucial to Australia’s society, ecosystems and prosperity and actively recognise the diversity of all stakeholders, including small and niche industries and those based in rural, regional and remote communities, First Nations people, people with a disability, migrants, and women in non-traditional trades.’

Organisations can be involved in finding potential solutions to national skills and training challenges by becoming a Skills Insight Member. Membership is free and provides an opportunity to be an active part of industry networks, contributing to the direction of projects and activities that will impact industry.

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A key focus of their initial work as a JSC is to develop a Workforce Plan to describe workforce challenges and opportunities across the industries and develop appropriate strategies and advice to address these challenges. The Workforce Plan will be the centre piece of Skills Insight’s work and pave the way for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relation’s approval of projects. It will inform all Skills Insight’s projects, activities and operations. The first yearly Workforce Plan is currently being developed and will be available for feedback soon.

Skills Insight was created by Skills Impact, after a submission to move into the role of a Jobs and Skills Council was backed by over 200 letters of support from a broad range of industry stakeholders.

More information about Skills Insight's collaborative process, membership, workforce plan, and to subscribe for newsletters, can be found on the Skills Insight website.