Tackling The Skills Shortage

A skilled workforce leads to an employed workforce.

That’s the key message for National Skills Week 2022 which runs from August 22 to 28 to raise awareness of the myriad rewarding, lucrative and prestigious career pathways available via vocational education and training.

Federal Member for Macquarie, Susan Templeman hosted a jobs and skills roundtable with local business, education, union and community sector representatives to discuss the challenges in employment and skills in the Hawkesbury region ahead of the national summit next month.

“We discovered the challenges people were facing at the forums generally fell into five categories - labour shortages, getting the right skills, employment rules and regulations, the liveability of our region, and recruitment and retention,” Ms Templeman said.

“These categories encompassed a range of issues - everything from transport issues like train line closures for potential employees, to a small pool of people looking to work in certain industries, and even a collective exhaustion in the wake of multiple natural disasters and the Covid pandemic.

“It was good to get a range of views on the challenges, as well as possible solutions to help our area going forward.”

Ms Templeman will prepare a brief to take to next month’s summit in Canberra to table concerns raised.

The summit will cover a range of topics with a focus on:

• Keeping unemployment low, boosting productivity and raising incomes;
• Delivering secure, well-paid jobs and strong, sustainable wages growth;
• Expanding employment opportunities for all Australians including the most disadvantaged;
• Addressing skills shortages and getting our skills-mix right over the long-term;
• Improving migration settings to support higher productivity and wages;
• Maximising jobs and opportunities from renewable energy, tackling climate change, the digital economy, the care economy and a Future Made in Australia; and
• Ensuring women have equal opportunities and equal pay.

• Topics:

• Employment & Training