2012
Environmental Scan
Call for Submissions
Each
year, AgriFood Skills Australia develops the Environmental Scan –
the ‘early warning system’ for Australia’s tertiary system and
governments on industry’s skill and workforce development needs.
Based on real-time views and evidence from across the country, it
sets out the factors impacting on the shape and capability of
agrifood’s workforce, and how well the training system, its products
and services are responding – and importantly, what needs to happen.
Many within industry are suggesting agrifood sits at a cross roads -
the ageing of our workforce is on an unsustainable trajectory.
Rising input costs, a strong dollar, the dominance of major
retailers and need for a ‘social licence’ are challenging the
sustainability of large and small businesses alike. At the same
time, there is a burgeoning market off Australia’s northern shores
demanding precisely the world class produce with which we are
synonymous and food security remains on the global agenda.
The single most important factor in determining industry’s future
will be its skills base and how well we use new knowledge and
innovation to build a highly productive, dynamic and adaptive
workforce. Many see the next few years as transformative with the
level of change comparable to the industrial revolution. Grass
roots insights and immediacy of intelligence are what sets the
Environmental Scan apart from other reports in the training system.
For this reason, the Scan is not about recycling already published
statistics or economic analyses found elsewhere, which by their very
nature are historical.
Rather, it’s about your views and conversations with industry, those
doing the jobs, employing the workforce and providing support
services to industry – all of whom experience firsthand the issues
needing to be written about and to which the training system needs
to respond.
Have
your say
You
can participate in a number of ways:
-
Respond to the specific questions below
-
Send us key reports or documents for consideration
-
Drop us an email on your specific issue(s) that relate to skills
and workforce development.
Your submission
should be sent to
scan@agrifoodskills.net.au
by no later than
12 December 2011.
To view the existing
2011 Environmental
Scan,
go to the AgriFood
website.
Tell us
about....
Key
questions
-
What are the top 5 domestic and international factors changing
the skills base and workforce profile of agrifood sectors? These
may be factors which change the way employees work, be a trigger
for new skills or be the cause of occupational shortages /
oversupply.
-
How well is Australia’s current training system (and the higher
education sector) responding to industry’s skill needs. What’s
working well, what could be done better and what are the key
blockages that currently stand in the way of better industry use
of the training system?
Focus questions
-
What are your views on:
a.
New job roles – agrifood is evolving into a highly technical and
sophisticated industry. New job roles are emerging and others
disappearing or converging. What changes are you seeing in the
industry?
b.
New skills for existing workers – with the demand for sustainable
practice, animal welfare and an increasingly demanding consumer, the
current workforce will be required to adopt new practices and
rapidly build their knowledge. What are the new skills and emerging
areas of knowledge now in demand?
c.
Employers of choice – agrifood enterprises are competing against the
rest of the economy for skilled and semi skilled workers. How do we
evolve agrifood businesses into ‘employers of choice’ to ensure they
can attract labour, keep hold of existing workers and reposition the
image of the industry?
d.
Language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) levels of the current
workforce - are they a barrier to lifting productivity levels and
acquiring the new skills that will be needed by the workforce?
Will our workers have sufficient digital literacy in response to the
demands of paddock to plate traceability and integrated logistics?
e.
Occupational shortages – what are the job roles that are hard to
fill and what are the causes, for example, competition in tight
regional labour market, unattractive job role, specialised skills
and knowledge.
Contact
For
more information about the 2012 Environmental Scan, please contact:
Robert Wilson
General Manager, Industry Learning and Intelligence
AgriFood Skills Australia
Ph: 02 6163 7237
E:
robert.wilson@agrifoodskills.net.au
