Lawrence, Jennifer - Master Builders Australia

Response:

Industry engagement means industry has the opportunity to meaningfully participate in the VET sector. This includes identifying training needs, developing training products, delivering and assessing training, and raising concerns, and to do so in such a way that industry voices are heard, understood and influential.   

Connecting with the VET sector is not high on the priority list for most industry stakeholders, especially individual businesses. As such, information and opportunities to engage need to be easy to find, understand and participate in, and participants need to feel that their voice contributes to outcomes. 

Online consultation and validation processes for the development of training products are not easy to find and not easy to understand. An industry stakeholder would need to know that a training product was being developed or updated; what an SSO is; who the SSO is for the training package that the training product is in; and be familiar with and able to interpret training product documents, language and requirements. 

To address the difficulty in finding training product consultation processes there should be on a central landing page for all current projects and open consultation processes, preferably an existing site that businesses are aware of rather than a new site. People should be able to easily find this page through search and links from relevant government, industry and training websites; the site should enable subscription to notifications and link directly to the relevant SSO project page for each current project. In addition, open consultation processes should be promoted through existing channels such as the business.gov.au Business Consultation website.

Similar to the Department running different skills reform consultation processes targeting specific stakeholder cohorts, consultation and validation for training products should be tailored to stakeholder cohorts. It is not reasonable to expect that a business has to understand training product documents, language and requirements in order to contribute.

The input from industry and employers should be given a greater weighting in consultation processes for the development and update of training products.

In addition, we see a role for industry and employers in the assessment of competency to provide greater certainty that graduates are genuinely competent to undertake tasks from a particular unit of competency to the standard expected on site and by employers.

Response:

Yes

Response:

What works well - The system has an essential requirement for consultation directly with industry. This is a definite strength, having said that it could be improved. As identified in the response to the previous question, stakeholders interested in participating face challenges – in particular, finding consultations and being able to understand the lingo.

How well are we represented - Master Builders Australia is well represented in existing arrangements. We are on the Construction IRC, relevant technical advisory groups and actively participate in consultation processes. Our input in these processes is informed by the state and territory Master Builders Associations and their business members.

Cross industry collaboration - Collaborating on the development or update of training products that are across industry sectors is haphazard. In some instances SSOs/IRCs will reach out to other SSOs/IRCs to seek their input. But typically it is up to SSOs, individual IRC members and other stakeholders to monitor projects in other relevant sectors and insert themselves into consultation processes. 

Response:

Skills across different jobs:
To a degree current qualifications enable workers to develop skills that are applicable across different occupations within the same sector. For example, in the Cert III CPC qualifications there are a range of units of competency which are included in multiple trade qualifications.

In addition, current training package rules allow units of competency from different, but relevant, training packages to be imported into qualifications. This can assist to address skills and workforce needs while also enabling workers to develop skills that can be applied across different jobs. 

It is also important to acknowledge that there are common attributes that employers look for when engaging workers and that these attributes are taught across a wide range of training products and qualifications, but are not necessarily the explicit purpose of the training. For example, problem solving, communication, adaptability, resilience, and work ethic. Students may benefit from an enhanced understanding that they are developing these skills and that these skills are highly desirable and transferrable. 


Breaking down silos:
We are aware that some people sit on multiple IRCs and this can assist to foster greater understanding of the work of other sectors and encourage collaboration. A possibility could be to enable members on an IRC to be an honorary member of another IRC in respect to specific projects.

The case for change template could also require SSOs to identify other units, qualifications, skill sets, and occupations that the proposal may be relevant to and require consultation and collaboration with the relevant SSO and IRC.

The Department could hold an annual conference for IRC members, this could include speakers such as Ministers, AISC, ASQA, SSOs, etc.; workshops; and networking opportunities. This would help to break down silos by enabling IRC members to connect with members in other IRCs, collectively workshop ideas, hear from other IRCs or SSOs on innovative ideas that have worked for them, etc.

Response:

A key challenge in meeting the needs of industry and learners is maintaining the relevance and currency of qualifications. The Productivity Commission in their recently published skills review wrote “The process for developing training packages involves many parties and layers of supervision … The process is time-consuming, delaying delivery to the market.” Master Builders agrees.

The lack of timeliness in the national training system is leading to skills shortage and training having to be addressed through non-accredited training and accredited courses which are not subject to the same rigour as nationally developed training. 

The development of skill sets and stand-alone units to address emerging skills needs should be encouraged and the process to incorporate these into existing qualifications streamlined and expedited.

Different needs of industry and learners: 
In general, the needs of industry and learners align – that is, developing the skills and knowledge required for the job. 

A challenge to balance, particularly in the apprenticeship space, is the desire by some employers for highly specialised qualifications that align to their business scope with the need for learners to develop skills covering the broader remit of the occupation.

From a construction industry perspective, we are also seeing a reduction in the requirement for on-site experience and assessment across qualification levels. While there is an argument for and against this, graduates that do not have sufficient on the ground experience are far less likely to be engaged in a job relevant to their qualification.

Challenges with the way quals are designed:
A key challenge is balancing the views of diverse stakeholders in determining what learners need to know and how this should be demonstrated. This includes individuals with key bugbears going outside of standard processes when things haven't gone their way to get their voice heard and influence outcomes, and in turn to undermine the qualification design processes. For example, an individual going to a state training authority or AISC member in the final stages to object.  In addressing this, SSOs, IRCs and the AISC should have clear guidance on weighting the views of different stakeholders - i.e. who should have the most influence on the content of quals; and steps should be put in place to ensure that stakeholders cannot undermine the integrity consultation processes.

Qualifications which are linked to industrial instruments face an additional layer of complexity due to competency-based wage progression. If all training providers, including VET in school, delivered consistently high-quality training that met industry expectations this wouldn’t be an issue, but unfortunately it is.

Response:

Further to our suggestion for a central landing page for current projects and consultation processes, this should also include a library of past projects. 

At present some, but certainly not all, SSOs provide public access to past project information and documentation. This is valuable information and should be available for all past projects. At minimum it should include the papers that go to the AISC (case for change, project scope, case for endorsement, etc). The library should be housed on the central site so that stakeholders can easily find the information they need and so that information is not lost when organisational structures, such as SSOs and IRCs, change.