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The Australian Government conducted reviews of the South Australian and Victorian economies following announcement by the remaining Australian-based automotive manufacturers, Holden, Ford and Toyota, that they intended to cease production in Australia by 2017. The three year lead time to 2017 provides an opportunity for the Australian Government to identify the industries and jobs of the future for South Australia and Victoria. This report, based on the evidence gathered through submissions and hearings, provides an assessment of each State’s economic situation, explores key challenges in the automotive and components sectors, and identifies emerging sectors of high growth in which each state has comparative advantages. The report considers key areas where business and governments could respond to current pressures and implement longer-term activities. These responses and activities could include: recognition of skills inherent in the automotive manufacturing industries; expansion of the small to medium business sector; better linkages between business and research institutions; investment in productivity-enhancing infrastructure; and measures to unleash business growth in new industries, to create the jobs of the future in South Australia and Victoria.

The review makes the following recommendations: Enable an assessment of existing skill levels and extent of formal accreditation across the automotive and component manufacturing workforces; Identify re-skilling and accreditation requirements within these workforces; Initiate analysis of the components and after-market sectors to identify diversification potential; Identify the emerging sectors that will be economic and employment drivers of the future - sectors in which South Australia and Victoria have comparative strengths; Investigate support of those sectors and regions through investment, regulatory change, business-research linkages, greater commercialisation efforts, and better access to private finance; Identify productivity-enhancing infrastructure, facilities and commercial settings required to encourage investment and growth in South Australia’s and Victoria’s industries and jobs of the future.

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The transition confronting workers, businesses and communities that have historically relied on Victoria's automotive industry is highly significant. The decision by Australia's three remaining carmakers - Ford Australia, General Motors Holden (GMH) and Toyota Australia - to wind down local car manufacturing operations will have a major impact on closure-affected regions, especially in Melbourne and Geelong. Despite the scale of the challenge, much is being done by community organisations, businesses and governments to offset the negative impacts of the transition. But how effective will these efforts be?

This report finds that: (1) the automotive industry transition is a process that governments and communities can shape, influence and change in order to learn lessons and achieve positive outcomes; and (2) we cannot rely upon forecasts based solely upon past studies of large-scale closures, layoffs and redundancies in order to understand the current auto industry transition. For example, the closure of Mitsubishi's car manufacturing operations in Adelaide between 2004 and 2008 occurred in a context in which alternative car manufacturing job opportunities existed and in favourable economic conditions underpinned by the mining boom in South Australia. In the current environment, employment in car manufacturing will no longer be an option and economic conditions, particularly in closure-affected regions, are likely to be significantly less favourable for jobseekers.

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There is considerable potential for career guidance to connect employers with job seekers and for employers to be able to realise business benefits by addressing the career development needs of their staff. This report argues that career guidance brings an important perspective and can play a market-shaping role by bringing together employers and job seekers to support the effective operation of the labour market. Five areas are identified where a productive relationship can be developed between employers, career guidance providers and job seekers to realise mutual benefits. These areas are: influencing the labour market; recruitment; workforce development; redundancy; and community engagement. The report draws on evidence from a literature review, a call for evidence and empirical work with employers, and identifies characteristics of good practice in relation to the role of employers in career guidance. These include the development of productive relationships between employers and intermediaries, the employer's approach to human resource development, and an understanding of the benefits that can be realised through employer engagement with career guidance.

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This paper explores the impact of robot adoption on European regional labour markets between 1995 and 2015. Specifically, we look at the effect of the usage of industrial robots on jobs and employment structures across European regions. We regress the outcome of interest on the change in the exposure to robotisation in each regional labour market, based on the initial distribution of employment by industry across regions. Our estimates suggest that the effect of robots on employment tends to be mostly small and negative during the period 1995-2005 and positive during the period 2005-2015 for the overwhelming majority of model specifications and assumptions. Regarding the effects on employment structures, we find some evidence of a mildly polarising effect in the first period, but this finding depends to some extent on the model specifications. In sum, this paper shows that the impact of robots on European labour markets in the last couple of decades has been small and ambiguous. The strength and even the sign of this effect are sensitive to the specifications, as well as to the countries and periods analysed.

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Mature age workers, as well as young people, are increasingly being affected by changes in the organisation of work and in the skills required in the workplace. Labour market changes could, however, have an even more significant and lasting effect on mature age workers. Employers can be sceptical of the feasibility or value to their enterprise of retraining workers late in their working lives and these workers themselves may not be seeking to gain or upgrade vocational qualifications in their own time. 'The vocational education and training (VET) needs of mature age workers' project has assessed the problem of redundancy amongst mature age workers, developed a best practice model for those at risk of redundancy, and identified effective strategies to meet the education and training needs of mature age workers. One of the central aims of the project is to analyse quantitative data pertaining to mature age adults in New South Wales (NSW) with a view to understanding the number and nature of older adults who are unemployed, have experienced redundancy, or who have/are participating in education and training. To do this, three sets of unpublished quantitative data were obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) and synthesised for the purposes of profiling labour force and training participation data in NSW on the basis of age. This companion report to the final report includes quantitative data on unemployment, redundancy and education and training participation.

Quantitative report of the New South Wales (NSW) Board of Vocational Education and Training (BVET research project 'The vocational education and training needs of mature age workers'. Companion report to the final report 'Older workers and education and training' (TD/ERD 87.185).

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This report assesses the precariousness of older adults' employment. Using a nationally representative longitudinal survey, we follow workers from their early 50s to age 65 and beyond and measure the incidence of involuntary job separations. Our analysis focuses on employer-related separations as opposed to quits driven by poor health, family caregiving responsibilities, or other personal reasons. We tabulate separations caused by layoffs and business closings as well as quits motivated by job dissatisfaction and unexpected retirements. We consider only those separations that have serious financial consequences, leading to long spells of nonwork or substantially reduced earnings. Our results show that slightly more than one-half of adults in their early 50s who are working full time, full year with a long-term employer subsequently experienced an employer-related involuntary job separation. Only 1 in 10 of these involuntarily separated workers ever earned as much after their separation as before. Median household income fell 42 per cent following an employer-related involuntary job separation, and median household income at age 65 for workers who experienced an involuntary separation was 14 per cent lower than for those who did not.

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The student cohort which commences or returns to Australian university campuses in 2022 will be vastly different to that which commenced in 2019. Not only will a substantial proportion of returning students in Victoria and New South Wales have had no or limited time on campus in 2020 and 2021 (they represent approximately 59 per cent of the nation's returning students at universities), the numbers of commencing international students may be limited and, in some Australian states, many first-year students will have experienced long periods of absence from school.

In the first half of 2020, staff at Australian universities performed the Herculean task of shifting teaching and learning interactions, assessment, and student engagement online; in some cases, having limited knowledge of digital pedagogy or technical expertise. Many have argued that [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-driven changes in pedagogy in 2020 were but an acceleration of trends already in play, and that a substantial proportion of undergraduate and postgraduate coursework teaching will remain on-line, at least in the near future, given the perception that this form of teaching is cost effective. It is estimated that staff reduction exercises across the whole higher education sector has resulted in the loss of approximately 40,000 people between May 2019 and 2020, with further restructures and downsizing being undertaken in 2021 impacting on fixed term and continuing staff. Changes of this magnitude come with significant loss of funding, intellectual capital and expertise, but equally as significant is the human cost in terms of staff and student engagement and morale. Show less

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present research findings on the experience of career barriers by women who have changed career, and to suggest the practical implications of these findings for career management. Design/methodology/approach - An established, qualitative methodology, interpretative phenomenological analysis, was used to explore participants' experiences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight women who had changed careers and were analysed to identify the salient themes. Findings - Participants experienced career barriers, but their subjective experience did not necessarily match objectively defined barriers. One participant, for example, experienced redundancy not as a barrier to her career path but as an opportunity. It was only when situations or events threatened the self-concept that problems were experienced as barriers. These barriers were not insurmountable and participants used a number of strategies to overcome potential barriers. Practical implications - The findings suggest that career management or counselling should acknowledge and explore the client's subjective experience of career barriers. Strategies such as challenging or reframing potential barriers can be effective methods for helping clients to dismantle them. Originality/value - This research points to the gap in career theory and research on the experience of barriers in adult careers. It presents evidence on the subjective nature of barriers and on strategies used to overcome them.

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This is the first in a series of four short reports summarising the findings of four quarterly surveys of early education and childcare providers in Great Britain. We are seeking to understand the impact that the current [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic is having on the staffing decisions of early years providers in the private, voluntary and independent sectors. Early years providers face a variety of challenges, which look set to change considerably over the next year, from changes in the demand for childcare among parents to changes to the schemes of government support available such as through the government's furlough scheme. The evidence is clear that high quality staff - motivated, well-qualified and with access to good [continuing professional development] CPD opportunities - are key to supporting children's early development. However, even before the current crisis, the early years workforce in Great Britain faced a variety of challenges, with previous [Economic Policy Institute] EPI research finding that workers faced low and falling 'real terms' pay, while providers frequently reported difficulties hiring staff, particularly those who were well qualified. The current crisis threatens to exacerbate these issues. Over the course of these four surveys, to be carried out between August 2020 and May 2021, we hope to shine a light on the impact on the staffing decisions of early years providers of the current pandemic as it evolves.

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Community colleges often are catalysts for economic and workforce development in localities with high unemployment or large numbers of dislocated workers. Increasingly, dislocated workers - individuals who have experienced job loss due to occupational closings, reduced workforces, or severe local economic downturns - are enrolling in educational and retraining opportunities, career counseling, and other supports offered by their local community college in partnership with federal and state assistance programs. Although benchmarks for two-year college success include providing institutional supports to address students' academic, social, and personal adjustment needs, little research exists to help guide effective practices aimed at supporting dislocated workers' two-year college adjustment, retention, and success. To help fill this gap, this study collected data describing 117 dislocated-worker students' academic, social, personal-emotional, and institutional adjustment. Next we compared dislocated worker adjustment factors with those of 143 nondislocated worker students. Contrary to our expectations, the dislocated workers in our study actually reported better academic adjustment and better academic performance than other students. Also contrary to our expectations, we found no differences in adjustment needs between the two different groups on the basis of social support, goal-directedness, or barriers to employment success. We discuss implications for practice arising from our unexpected findings and present limitations of the study and directions for future research.

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