Skilling the Existing Workforce

The Australian Industry Group has recently completed the Skilling the Existing Workforce Project, a national project focussed on identifying and better understanding how the skilling needs of existing workers are being addressed and how current workplace practices might be built upon to achieve accelerated outcomes for enterprises and individuals ¹.  The project will also consider the policy implications for both government and industry.

The project has four elements:

1. The development of a background research paper and targeted consultation papers for enterprises and vocational education and training stakeholders to put the issue into context and to raise the key questions for each group around how skills are being and can be developed in the workplace.
2. A national round of consultations to give companies the opportunity to discuss the issues raised by the research from a practical, industry perspective and to talk through the proposed approaches with a view to identifying potential approaches and specific models to be tested through implementation of pilot programs.
3. The trialling of different approaches to workplace skilling.
4. An evaluation to document and review the outcomes of the trials.

The project was completed in November 2008. 

1. This project is a Commonwealth-State Skills Shortage Initiative funded through the Strategic National Initiatives component of the 2005-2008 Commonwealth-State Agreement for Skilling Australia's Workforce.