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Early projections for the roll-out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Queensland anticipated that the number of participants requiring support would increase by 43,000 people between 2016 and 2019 (almost doubling the number of people receiving support), while the workforce required to meet this growing demand for services would more than double. The NDIS Training and Skills Support Strategy (NTSSS) Advice Project forms part of Workability Queensland's NTSSS Strategy and Governance Project, which provides strategic advice to industry and governments on matters related to the NDIS workforce in Queensland, including advice on skilling priorities, vocational education and training (VET) investment and improvements in the quality of training delivery to support the future NDIS workforce. This research report provides a foundation for the remainder of the project by outlining the current situation for training and development of the NDIS direct service delivery workforce in Queensland and identifying issues for further exploration in the remainder of the project. The findings and issues outlined in this report are based on analysis of training data provided by the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training (DESBT), Workforce Wizard data from National Disability Services (NDS), service provider and participant data from National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and a brief literature review.

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In 2016, the ministers of Education articulated six broad global competencies. This reference framework, which is nonprescriptive, maps out broad directions for the integration of global competencies in education and helps policy-makers, school leaders, educators, and communities in provinces and territories to include global competencies in education. The six broad global competencies are defined as: Critical thinking and problem solving; Innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship; Learning to learn and to be self-aware and self-directed; Collaboration; Communication; and Global citizenship and sustainability.

The research shows that meaningful integration of global competencies into curricula involves more than simply adding on more content or replacing old content. It also requires changes, leadership, and participation at all levels of the systems including, among others communication with parents, students, and other stakeholders; learning (and unlearning) of classroom teaching; instructional design; assessment; relationships between teaching, management, and professional staff; leadership; and system evaluation. It means adopting a whole-systems approach to the transformation and developing specific tools to better meet stakeholders’ specific needs.

The literature review paper has been developed as part of the CMEC's work on global competencies, and its project to develop a pan-Canadian transformative systems-level framework to support their integration in education systems across the country. The paper intends to inform the development of the framework and has been developed in two parts, focusing on competency frameworks in the first and system transformation in the second part.

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Automation is inevitably reshaping future skills requirements and, as jobs transform and workers need to transfer skills horizontally across occupational and industry boundaries, soft skills will be increasingly valued. Some competencies will be essential for future employability and endure longer than the expected 2.5-year shelf life for technology use or technical competencies. A cross-sectorial training package with common competencies, and resulting skills sets and qualifications, can be developed to prepare all Australian industries to better adopt automation and respond to other technological disruptions. This requires a focus on developing common competencies potentially required by all industries and organisations, and most occupations. This is the final report arising from the Automation Cross-sectorial Project. This document aims to support national efforts to ensure we have training packages in place that can best sustain automation-enabled economic growth through development of skilled workers and a vocational education and training (VET) system that is able to prepare people for the jobs of the future.

Edited excerpts from publication and DeakinCo. website. Show less

This three-year project, from September 2015 through to August 2018, set out to make a distinctive contribution to the rapidly evolving field of employability, hitherto ignored in the veterinary context. The main drivers for this project were: emerging employment and workforce concerns for veterinary graduates; serious mental health concerns in both students and early graduates, partly potentiated by lack of preparedness for transition to practice; the failure of prevailing competency frameworks to usefully align with graduate-relevant outcomes predictive of professional success the universally acknowledged challenge of developing and assessing the 'soft' skills and personal capabilities known to be critical for employability and graduate success.

The aims of the VetSet2Go project were to (1) explore what employability means in the veterinary context, (2) develop an evidence-based, multi-stakeholder framework of the capabilities most important for employability and success in the veterinary profession, and (3) create aligned assessment tools and resources to build these capabilities, in order to improve veterinary graduate employability, resilience in transition to practice, and professional satisfaction and success.

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The purpose of this Framework is to define the management and leadership requirements that are relevant to all middle managers in the South Australian (SA) Public Sector. This framework categorises two types of competencies relevant to middle managers: core and common. The core competencies identified in the framework are relevant to all middle managers throughout the public sector, irrespective of location, agency or job role. The other component of the framework, the common competencies, are relevant to the majority of middle managers in the SA Public Sector, but may not be essential in every case. A middle manager can be defined as someone who is responsible for managing projects or programs, which may or may not involve managing people. They may work with teams as project managers or service delivery managers, or work independently as technical experts such as senior policy officers or scientists.

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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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This document is written to support Phase 3 of the four-phase [National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation] NACCHO Ear and Hearing Training for the Aboriginal Health Worker (AHW) workforce project. It is aimed at guiding discussion among key stakeholders invited to the national summit. This summit represents both the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health (ACCH) sector and Aboriginal medical services that are funded by state and territory governments. This document provides an overview of the NACCHO project, the [Council of Australian Governments] COAG measure to which it is linked, and the activities and achievements of the two phases completed to date. It presents the evaluation outcomes currently available from the accredited training pilot run during June-July 2011 that provide directions for future training, and therefore a national rollout of accredited training and ongoing professional development needs for AHWs in ear and hearing health.

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Climate change is acknowledged to be a major risk to public health. Skills and competencies related to climate change are becoming a part of the curriculum at schools of public health and are now a competency required by schools in Europe and Australia. However, it is unclear whether graduates of public health programs focusing on climate change are in demand in the current job market. The authors analyzed current job postings, 16 years worth of job postings on a public health job board, and survey responses from prospective employers. The current job market appears small but there is evidence from job postings that it may be growing, and 91.7 per cent of survey respondents believe the need for public health professionals with training in climate change may grow in the next 5-10 years. Current employers value skills/competencies such as the knowledge of climate mitigation/adaptation, climate-health justice, direct/indirect and downstream effects of climate on health, health impact assessment, risk assessment, pollution-health consequences and causes, Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping, communication/writing, finance/economics, policy analysis, systems thinking, and interdisciplinary understanding. Ensuring that competencies align with current and future needs is a key aspect of curriculum development. At the same time, we recognize that while we attempt to predict future workforce needs with historical data or surveys, the disruptive reality created by climate change cannot be modeled from prior trends, and we must therefore adopt new paradigms of education for the emerging future.

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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 (IRCs). 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 Food, Beverage and Pharmaceutical industries.

Key findings include: (1) The Food, Beverage and Pharmaceutical industries are going through significant transformation and facing challenges from multiple sources, including natural disasters, global market instability, changing consumer tastes, technological development and the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic; (2) There are major growth opportunities for industry, and the Federal Government has identified these industries as priority strategic industries for Australia, through priority manufacturing strategic plans. There is increasing diversity in the offerings within industry, while innovation to address environmental concerns is at the forefront of processing considerations; and (3) Recent updates to the FBP Food Beverage and Pharmaceutical Training Package have provided improved skilling opportunities and have assisted in identifying and meeting skills demands throughout the tumultuous period of the last two years (and continuing).

The IRC has identified priorities for consideration by the new Industry Cluster body (assuming establishment proceeds), including: leading an agribusiness, food and fibre industries skills analysis, workforce planning and development project to identify and address occupational skills gaps related to traceability, provenance and blockchain; review of qualifications related to baking, and consideration of the need to develop nationally consistent assessment and training materials linked to the relevant occupations, and promotion of career attraction and opportunities for the baking industry; review of wine operations training products to better meet industry needs; identifying digital skills needs utilising the Digital Workforce Capability and vocational education and training (VET) framework currently in development (along with other digital capability frameworks). A review of the FBP Training Package has identified relevant products relating to food waste, though developments in this area should be monitored for future consideration.

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Economic inequality is one of the biggest challenges facing society today. Inequality has been recently exacerbated by growth in high- and low-wage occupations at the expense of middle-wage occupations, leading to a 'hollowing' of the middle class. Yet, our understanding of how workplace skills drive this process is limited. Specifically, how do skill requirements distinguish high- and low-wage occupations, and does this distinction constrain the mobility of individuals and urban labor markets? Using unsupervised clustering techniques from network science, we show that skills exhibit a striking polarization into two clusters that highlight the specific social-cognitive skills and sensory-physical skills of high- and low-wage occupations, respectively. The connections between skills explain various dynamics: how workers transition between occupations, how cities acquire comparative advantage in new skills, and how individual occupations change their skill requirements. We also show that the polarized skill topology constrains the career mobility of individual workers, with low-skill workers 'stuck' relying on the low-wage skill set. Together, these results provide a new explanation for the persistence of occupational polarization and inform strategies to mitigate the negative effects of automation and offshoring of employment.

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