Careers & Training, News

Deadline extended to play your part in developing a national workforce plan for trucking

Future-of-Trucking

Industry Skills Australia (ISA), the recently appointed Jobs and Skills Council for transport and logistics, has extended the deadline for expressions of interest for various roles on a number of committees that will oversee the development of a national workforce plan.

The deadline was originally set as close of business on Friday, July 28, but that has now been extended until August 11 due to an “overwhelming” response.

“You can be anybody at all, we’re waiting to hear from the right people about their involvement,” said ISA CEO Paul Walsh.

“Whether it’s someone out there driving, someone at an operational level, or a CEO, there’s lots of opportunities. We’ve got strategic committees, but we’ve also got other engagement mechanisms and committees when we get into the technical work.

“If we’re looking at, say chain of responsibility, or the heavy vehicle apprenticeship, we would want to get people with expertise on to those committees.”

Walsh, a former truckie himself, says the difference with this new approach to solving the long-running skills shortage plaguing the industry is that the model is more an “end-to-end” one, rather than just focusing on qualification.

Formerly known as Australian Industry Standards, which focused more on skills issues through the lens of qualification in vocational education and training, Walsh says the latest iteration has far broader role.

“It’s not just us sitting in a room, trying to think up ideas, it’s actually through a whole range of consultation and industry committees that have determinative powers on where we focus our effort.”

Walsh says the council is aiming to submit its first workforce development plan to Canberra in September to highlight some of the issues and ideas around what those solutions would be.

It hopes to be fully operational by January 2024.

To play your part in helping bolster industry skills, register your interest at industryskillsaustralia.org.au.

Committee members will meet 2-3 times a year, with the first formal meetings of each committee set for October 2023.

The Australian Government has established 10 Jobs and Skills Councils to address the many workforce planning and skills development challenges facing Australia, and to ensure that the national Vocational Education and Training (VET) system meets the rapidly evolving skill needs of industry, employers and the workforce.

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