Morning Session – 0800am: Skills and Training for the future labour market

A full transcript of Innes Willox's second address to the Jobs and Skills Summit, on 2 September 2022, is available for download here (see right).

"In 2016, with others, I stood in front of the then Prime Minister and the Premiers at a COAG meeting – don’t worry none of you were there then, so you are not being held responsible – but we talked then of the skill shortages that industry was experiencing and of the crisis that was unfolding before us, and here we are. We still have crippling labour and skill shortages with no relief in sight. And to be blunt, there is no more important issue for employers.

"We need urgent and wholehearted action that makes a significant down payment on developing a pipeline of skilled workers for at least the next decade. Enough of the excuses.

"This plan must deliver bold, generational reform. A history of tepid reform has left us unprepared and wasted precious time and money. It now seems that our teenagers would rather be influencers than engineers.

"We are now at a critical juncture, with no option but to step up to the challenge.

"As I see it, there are seven priority areas for reform..."