Roundtable seeks solutions for jobs, skills shortages

TRAINING reform and hiring a previously-overlooked cohort of workers were among the ideas floated at a roundtable hosted by the federal government in Ocean Grove last week.

Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O’Connor and Corangamite federal member Libby Coker invited about 20 representatives from the arts, education, manufacturing, tourism, business, employment and training sectors to the event, held at the Ocean Grove SLSC clubhouse.

Organisations at the roundtable included Deakin University, The Gordon TAFE, Northern Futures, G21, Tourism Greater Geelong and Bellarine, the United Workers Union, and Energy Skills Australia.

The event followed the National Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra and was presented as an opportunity to collectively solve some of the economic and employment challenges facing the Geelong region.

Mr O’Connor said possible solutions presented at the roundtable included accelerating skilled migration pathways, putting investment towards in-demand courses at VET and university, and giving more opportunity to cohorts that often miss out on getting into the labor market, such as people with a disability, First Nations people, and older people.

“Employers have to become more alive to the fact that they should be giving people a go that may not have had a chance in the past, and governments have to be giving the right sort of support if they haven’t been used to being in the labour market.”

He said worker shortages were particularly prevalent in the health, hospitality, construction and trades sectors, but “it’s almost wherever you look, there are shortages… it is across the economy”.

The federal government has already increased Australia’s annual skilled migration intake from 160,000 to 195,000, but Mr O’Connor said this would be assessed in the future.

“What we need to see is the return of our overseas students, because that’s always been a constant supply of labour.”

Ms Coker said the the COVID-driven surge in population in the Geelong region had created “an interesting dynamic” here.

“We want to keep those people here, particularly those that are skilled, but it is also about creating a situation with a growing population; housing is the issue.

“There’s huge demand down here, strong growth, so it’s about capitalising on that growth and the skills that people are bringing to live and work in our region.”

She said all the roundtable’s attendees had made a submission to the federal government’s white paper.

“There’s a lot of work to do, but I think with the breadth and depth of experience, we’re going to get there.

“This is not an easy thing – we’ve had 10 years, virtually, of inaction, and we need to address that.”