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This document follows the Agribusiness, Food and Fibre Industries Skills Report [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 149.307], which was produced collaboratively with the assistance of 12 Industry Reference Committees. The Agribusiness, Food and Fibre Industries Skills Report documented the skills and issues that are common across those industries. This document is an attempt to identify how those common issues relate specifically to the Amenity Horticulture, Landscaping, Conservation and Ecosystem Management industries.

Key findings include: (1) The Amenity Horticulture, Landscaping, Conservation and Ecosystem Management industries are going through significant transformation and facing challenges from multiple sources, including natural disasters, global markets, changing consumer taste, technological development and the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic; (2) The demands for skills, labour and work are likely to grow beyond the current predictions and expectations of the National Skills Commission and other analysis bodies. This points to a lack of analytic data available specifically for this field, including on new and emerging industry sectors and skills, which is expanding as the industry continues to be elevated as a national priority, especially in relation to addressing climate and in recognition of the critical importance of biodiversity and biosecurity to all Australian land and water activities.

The Amenity Horticulture, Landscaping and Conservation and Land Management IRC have identified priorities which they recommend for future consideration, including: the finalisation of the Unit Sector Approach for reviewing the AHC Training Package, and further consideration of the Rural Operations qualifications, including the potential for greater recognition of ecosystem management as a key part of rural activities; evaluation of the Unit Sector Approach for the review of the AHC Training Package; working with other agribusiness, food and fibre industries on research and planning projects to identify and address skills gaps relating to traceability, provenance and blockchain; identifying digital skills needs using the Digital Workforce Capability and vocational education and training (VET) framework currently in development (along with other digital capability frameworks); and working with the Arts and Personal Services Cluster (specifically relating to Tourism and Hospitality) to ensure that food handling, biosecurity, provenance, traceability and other relevant skills are incorporated into their qualifications with the guidance of experts from the Agribusiness, Food and Fibre Industry Cluster.

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The background to this study is the mismatch between housing supply and demand in Australia. This research seeks to address the following question: What are the key features and trends in the structure, conduct and performance of the core parts of the housing industry and what are the main dimensions of the labour force working in these parts in the context of considerable fluctuations in the level of activity in the housing industry?

The study utilises a mixed methods approach, including a literature review, exploratory interviews with industry stakeholders, quantitative analysis of spatial and temporal aspects of the industry, and focus groups with experienced residential builders. It finds that housing sector employment is segmented between the project builders (specialising in volume product) and bespoke building (specialising in one-off houses and alterations and additions). Bespoke building is closely associated with a broad range of tasks and high levels of skill, particularly for carpenters. The other trades working on these jobs tend to have long-term relationships with these builders. By contrast, project building is associated with more specialised tasks, requiring a narrower range of skills. There appears to be little movement of workers between the two different types of building work. There is also a geographic dimension to this segmentation - new build is concentrated in growth areas where there is land supply and population growth, and alterations and additions more concentrated in ageing inner and middle ring suburbs. Project building workers are mobile and work across larger distances within metropolitan areas as new outer suburban housing estates start up and others wind down. Analysis done for this project indicated some remarkable levels of mobility exhibited by individual building contractors. However on average, distances travelled to jobsites actually reduced over the period 2001-10. In general the industry works well aligning housing labour supply and housing demand (indicated by population growth) in most regions. There were some 'critical areas' where there was a mismatch, with labour shortages most apparent in Queensland. Rockhampton, Calliope, Kingston, Jondaryan and Mundingburra experienced an increase in housing demand that was not accompanied by significant housing sector labour force growth. Future labour supply could be affected by poor apprenticeship retention due to a lack of appropriate supervision in the workplace, problems with poor and inappropriate training, bullying and abuse in the workplace, and low wages. Show less

This report aims to identify ways in which education and training policy can be harnessed to improve national engineering skills supply and capacity in Australia. To achieve this, we have explored issues associated with the supply of and demand for qualified professionals and para-professionals entering the engineering workforce, such as professional engineers, engineering technologists and associate engineers.

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After recently catapulting to its highest level in 13 years, Western Australian [WA] business confidence remains relatively high, down only slightly in the first three months of this year. Ongoing strength in the mining sector continues to be the most significant factor driving confidence, followed by optimism around the nationwide vaccine roll out and record low interest rates. Rising skills shortages and the concern this will push up labour costs is the most significant headwind for confidence. Indeed, more than half (54 per cent) of WA businesses indicated they are struggling to fill at least one skilled occupation.

While the expiry of JobKeeper at the end of March weighed on the minds of some WA businesses, particularly those that rely on international tourism and global supply chains, the vast majority appear well placed to handle the withdrawal of wage support. In fact, almost one out of two (45 per cent) WA businesses indicated that they plan to expand their workforce over the next three months, compared to only 10 per cent that expect employment levels to decline. In this edition of the [Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia] CCIWA Business Confidence Survey we asked businesses a series of questions on energy and climate change policy. In particular, we unpack the business community's top priorities when it comes to their energy supply.

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The Jobs Summit in early September 2022 is the chance to chart a course towards full and secure employment for all. The Jobs Summit Series - a series of papers released by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) in the lead up to the Summit - aims to provoke debate and build common ground on what that course could be.

If you are a woman working today, chances are that you will earn less than a man, have less job security and retire with less income. There may be no greater measure to boost national productivity and economic growth than delivering respect for women at work. This report maps out the many challenges to realise this, from the gender pay gap, barriers to women at work, improving safety and respect for women, the crisis in the care economy and the insecure work and low pay facing women.

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The impact of the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic has, in general, been considerably more severe on entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) than on larger organizations. This fact is critical to note since SMEs are the backbone of the Canadian economy, employing almost 90 per cent of all Canadians who work in the private sector. SMEs faced significant challenges even before the pandemic. Skills gaps and labour shortages have long been a feature of the Canadian economy and they remain a top concern for SMEs. The purpose of this report is twofold: First, it reviews existing research on SMEs' and entrepreneurs' skills, upskilling and training needs, and proposes options for better supporting them as they strive to recover from the pandemic and prepare for what comes next. In particular, this review highlights barriers and challenges faced by entrepreneurs who are members of equity-seeking groups, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, this report presents preliminary results from a survey on skills and competencies (a survey that is still in the field as of June 2021) and from a set of focus groups conducted as part of the same project.

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This is the annual report on the energy and telecommunication industries covering the developments of the past 12 months, and presenting a 10 year outlook for the industry. It identifies the priorities for skilling and workforce development for the next five years, detailing advice to inform government investments in training and education. Currently, the energy and telecommunication industries in Queensland employs 136,000 workers and this number is expected to increase by 4.4 per cent over the next 12 months, and could potentially grow to 155,000 by 2021. However, the existing age profile of the energy and telecommunication workforce, shows that many workers are approaching retirement age. With the planned energy and electricity projects for Queensland in the coming five to 10 years, a potential of 35,000 new jobs could become available over this period. The current supply of apprentices and trainees will not meet the current and future demand. Commencement rates are in decline, with significant attrition rates of 40 per cent (average of the past four years). A false sense of security might exist due to increasing completions, based on high commencement rates on the past; however, these numbers will drop as in-training numbers are also in decline. Skilled migration in the past five years has accounted for less than one per cent of workforce supply. The energy and telecommunication industries are reliant on a technical skilled workforce, and because they are typically characterised by a less flexible pay structure and conditions, they are likely to experience increased staff turnover and 'poaching' due to workforce supply and demand imbalances. The energy and resources boom will also more than likely create a 'bidding war' amongst organisations for highly skilled workers. The apprentice and traineeship numbers indicate that skills shortages are an issue right now, and not just of the future. This report identifies and presents a list of policy recommendations designed to assist in developing the energy and telecommunication industry workforce. With the transition from mechanical to automated processes, e.g. smart-meters, and gas to electric turbines, requiring higher, more technical, skills, it is important that priority is given to up-skilling tradesworkers and to promoting developing their skills into para-professional roles.

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Clustering theory assumes that companies gravitate towards each other on the basis of locally and regionally specific resources and supply chain characteristics, which lead in turn to innovation and high-value economic development. In line with such thinking, UK government policy has devolved certain functions to regional development agencies such as the encouragement of linkages and systems to facilitate knowledge transfer and address skills needs within regional clusters. Within this broad context, the research reported here focused on the analysis and development of an action plan for the development of marine and maritime sector skills within the South West region, which led to the establishment of a new institutional framework of three sub-regional centres of excellence based on industry and training collaboration to provide demand-led vocational training. The overall issue here is how sector skills shortages can be tackled by strategic intervention at a regional level and collaboration between stakeholders at a sub-regional level.

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The [National Health Service] NHS faces significant shortages of nurses, midwives and other healthcare staff such as physiotherapists and radiographers, referred to for the purposes of this report as the health professional workforce. There are a number of measures that can be taken to overcome these shortages of which a key one is through educating and training new staff. The NHS also has to continue to train and develop existing staff if it is to meet the Government's objective that healthcare services should be of a consistently high quality and that the way that these services are delivered should be modernised. [This] report looks at the effectiveness of the current arrangements for educating and training new staff (pre-registration education and training) in England.

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This book discusses [the challenges of Brexit and the wider challenges and opportunities facing the UK's labour market] and how business and policy makers might rise to the challenges they pose. The first chapter explains why our labour market may have reached a tipping point, with an increase in the relative cost of low-wage labour and a fall in supply as migration levels reduce. Chapter 2 focuses on that second shift, noting that migration levels are falling long before we formally exit the EU. Chapter 3 discusses how businesses may react to these forces, mapping the varying scope for investment in skills and automation in different sectors. Chapter 4 turns to what the government can do to offset any fall in labour supply by supporting those furthest from the labour market. Chapter 5 outlines how we can tackle high levels of precarious jobs and get our labour market ready for the new world of work, while Chapter 6 focuses on how we can begin to address the UK's endemic challenge of progression out of low pay.

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Chapters: End of an era?; the supply of low-wage labour is set to fall and its price is set to rise / Torsten Bell and Stephen Clarke; Filling in the gaps; preparing for the end of free movement / Stephen Clarke; A firm response: business responses to the labour market tipping point will vary by sector / Kathleen Henehan; All working together: how to draw more people into the UK labour market / Stephen Clarke; 'Atypical' day at the office: tackling the problems of 'atypical' work / Stephen Clarke; Moving on up: enabling earnings progression in the UK labour market / David Finch. Show less