CEO Update

One of the key pillars for how AIS operates centres around our stakeholders, with a focus on delivering exceptional service. To further facilitate engagement with our stakeholders, we have strengthened our online presence with the inclusion of a new Engagement Hub, housed on the AIS website. This is one way we are looking to further support industry engagement in our work. It provides a one stop gateway for you to inform current and future skills needs, provide feedback on draft Training Package materials and/or be part of a Technical Advisory Committee.

From this hub, you can register for our series of  webinars that kick off this week. The Industry Skills 360 Series of webinars will include a panel discussion with Industry Reference Committee (IRC) members and AIS skills specialists as they talk about skills needs and priority areas of industry focus. Further details are provided below, and I encourage you to join these discussions. The webinars complement our existing engagement activities, which include our ongoing day-to-day interactions with stakeholders across industry, government and the training sector.

The Department of Education, Skills and Employment’s current skills reform consultation process is giving industry and training sector stakeholders the opportunity to inform future industry engagement mechanisms, qualification design and quality. AIS has provided a submission to the department as part of its consultation on Industry Engagement and Qualifications Reform. Key points in our submission included:

• building a stronger and more contemporary focus on workforce development by building enterprise capability to upskill and reskill existing workers
• giving industry a greater determinative role in policy design and funding prioritisation
• recognising that engagement methodologies need to be dynamic and shaped according to each industry sector and that no single approach works for all
• improving training package policy to formally recognise the portability and progression of skills within and between industries, with a priority being those job roles which are rapidly evolving due to digital technologies and automation
• establishing an industry agreed policy on the ownership and maintenance of ‘cross sector’ units of competency to build collaboration between industries and portability of skills
• piloting new approaches, such as independent assessment, to support the integrity and consistency of assessment outcomes.

Earlier this year we sought your views on the support we provide via our annual stakeholder survey. It was great to see so much positive feedback about the services and support we provide and, in particular, our commitment to continuing business in a COVID environment. Our industry intelligence information was an area of interest with many using this in their business to raise awareness of emerging trends, benchmarking and to support business planning and practices. We are always committed to continuous improvement and will use the information collected to support that aim.

This week we recognised International Women’s Day with this year’s theme Choose to Challenge. Through our support of 11 IRCs, AIS has the opportunity to work with many talented women across some of Australia’s most dynamic industries. There is a real challenge for many of those industries in attracting women to non-traditional careers but everyday we see examples of where women are succeeding in building successful careers and spearheading change. AIS through its business unit, AIS Global, has proudly facilitated the development of a Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion Strategy for a leading VET college in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We continue to look at ways that we can support diversity across Australia’s workforce, and indeed globally. We’d love to hear from you. Let us know if you are a woman who has chosen a non-traditional pathway and would like to be featured in our upcoming ‘career profile’ series.

I look forward to you joining our upcoming Industry Skills 360 Series of webinars.

Paul Walsh

CEO

Australian Industry and Skills Committee (AISC) update

At the AISC meeting on 23 February 2021, Mark McKenzie, member of the AISC Digital Transformation Expert Panel, and Transport and Logistics IRC Chair, presented findings from the Expert Panel’s report, The Learning Country: Digital Transformation Skills Strategy. Mr McKenzie highlighted the value of a comprehensive lifelong learning policy to ensure the VET system can respond to the digital change underway across industry.

New releases of the Aviation and Transport and Logistics Training Packages were approved by the AISC at the meeting. The respective Industry Reference Committees developed the new materials contained in these releases through the following projects:

Remotely Piloted Aircraft Excluded Category Operations – materials include a new Unit of Competency and Skill Set which address priority remote pilot skill needs for RPA operations in the excluded category sub-2kg. This is to ensure remote pilots can fly safely and ethically within legislative and regulatory requirements. The new unit will be suitable for contextualisation across multiple industries in a variety of operating environments where a licence is not currently required.

Naval Shipbuilding (NSB) Integrated Logistics Support – materials include seven new Units of Competency and a new Skill Set which address industry demand for enhanced technical skills across Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) for the Naval Shipbuilding and Transport and Logistics industries, as well as providing for a greater understanding of how it relates to current Defence operational practices.

The Training Package releases are now pending endorsement by State and Territory Skills Ministers before publication on training.gov.au Please click here to read the AISC communiqué from this meeting.

The Northern Territory National Innovation Games

Join a hack-a-thon inspired innovation challenge and gain industry experience and contribute to innovation in the NTs developing renewable energy sector. The first of a series of challenges will be held on 25 March 2021 and you can join the games from anywhere.

You can register at paddl.com/jobs/949