The NSW Business Chamber's inaugural Workforce Skills Survey measures business attitudes on employment, education and training issues, and provides a comprehensive baseline to track future views. Key messages from the survey are that governments and businesses need to urgently train more people and retrain existing workers in the face of a skills shortage equating to more than 54,000 jobs across New South Wales. The report covers survey outcomes in relation to regional performance, training pathways and youth employment. The survey found that in regional NSW geographic location was... [+] Show more
The NSW Business Chamber's inaugural Workforce Skills Survey measures business attitudes on employment, education and training issues, and provides a comprehensive baseline to track future views. Key messages from the survey are that governments and businesses need to urgently train more people and retrain existing workers in the face of a skills shortage equating to more than 54,000 jobs across New South Wales. The report covers survey outcomes in relation to regional performance, training pathways and youth employment. The survey found that in regional NSW geographic location was identified as a far more significant barrier for a business's ability to recruit skilled workers than for businesses in metropolitan areas. With regard to views about employing apprentices and trainees and the potential barriers to lifting participation in vocational pathways to work, results reveal that employers perceive the lack of employability skills of new entrants to the workforce, red tape associated with navigating the system and the lack of high quality careers advice as key barriers to higher participation in apprenticeships and traineeships. Finally, in relation to youth employment, employability and preparation for work were a concern for the hiring businesses.
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