The Australian Government is investing $41.7 million to pilot Skills O

The Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business has published the following media release:

The Australian Government is investing $41.7 million to pilot Skills Organisations in two key industries; human services care and digital technology (including cyber security).

The Skills Organisations Pilots will drive innovative ‘end-to-end’ training solutions and enhance the role and leadership of industry in the national training system.

The Joyce Review proposed Skills Organisations be owned by industry and take a leadership role to support the VETsystem better meet the needs of employers, the economy and learners.

Pilots

The two pilots, in human services care and digital technologies, will trial new ways of working to shape the national training system to be more responsive to skills needs for those industries – from the identification of skills needs, to qualifications development, through to improving the quality of training delivery and assessment.

The pilots will be industry-led, and will trial innovative ‘end-to-end’ training solutions within the national training system. Lessons from these pilots will help inform broader improvements to the national training system.

Human Services Care

According to the Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family businesses 2018 Employment Projections, Health Care and Social Assistance is projected to make the largest contribution of any sector to employment growth, increasing by 250,300 jobs in the next five years.

Digital Technologies

Digital technologies are essential to Australia’s economy. The number of employed ICT and telecommunications professionals is projected to increase by at least 16% by 2023, which equates to an additional 46,000 workers. In addition, the cyber security sector has estimated a need for 18,000 more employees for the sector to meet its full potential.

Codesign

Alongside implementation of the two pilot Skills Organisations, the Australian Government is seeking input from stakeholders, across the VET system, to explore opportunities for ‘future-state’ Skills Organisations to improve industry leadership and employer confidence in the VET system, as well as improving quality in learner outcomes.

This information, in addition to learning from the two pilot Skills Organisations, will inform future Government decisions about the Skills Organisation model, including how this approach could deliver a VET system more responsive to industry needs and expectations.

To understand stakeholder views about the concept of establishing Skills Organisations beyond the pilots, the Department is holding national, co-design workshops with industry peak bodies, small and large employers, employee representatives and others.

The Department is seeking stakeholder views on a range of elements to understand whether and how the concept of Skills Organisations could drive improvements to employer confidence in the VET system to deliver the skills their organisations need now and into the future.

A discussion paper has been created for public consultation.

Submissions do not need to respond to all questions.

Submissions close on 15 November 2019. For more information please email SkillsOrganisations@employment.gov.au.

Unless indicated otherwise, responses may be published online on the Department’s website. All comments will be considered as part of the co-design process.

For more Information please visit https://www.employment.gov.au/SO

Sukh Sandhu

Executive Director

Sukh has been working in the VET and Higher Education Industry for over 25 years. In this time, he has held several roles with RTO's and Higher Education Providers (HEP) including CEO roles for International Colleges and National Compliance and Quality Assurance Manager roles for several RTO's, TAFE's and Universities. Sukh has also worked for the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) as a Business Systems Project Official. Sukh is a Canadian permanent resident and Australian citizen.

Sukh has had extensive project management experience in risk management, compliance, administration and as a training consultant. He has extensive knowledge in government compliance standards and has participated in nearly one hundred audits across Australia and provided consultancy advice regarding ASQA/VRQA, TEQSA, ACPET, DET-HESG, VQF/Higher Education, ELICOS, NEAS, ANMAC, AHPRA, CRICOS, ESOS and ISO.

Sukh is a member of several independent professional organisations and government bodies including, ACPET, VELG, ACS, AITD, MARA, MIA, ISANA, APEX, IEEE, The Internet Society (Global Member), AISIP, IAMOT, ACM, OISV, APACALL, IWA, Eta Kappa Nu, EDSIG and several others.

Sukh's qualifications include two MBAs, three masters in IT and systems, a Graduate diploma of management learning, Diploma in training design and development, Diploma in vocational education training, Diploma of work, health and safety, Diploma of Quality Auditing, Advanced diploma of management, Advanced diploma in marketing, human resources, information technology, and a number of other courses and qualifications. He has been working as a lecturer and as a trainer and assessor since 1998, Sukh has been a vocal advocate of audit reforms and system centred auditing practices rather than auditor centred auditing practices for many years.