Training series to address skills shortages

lesson, training, blackboard, teacher, training oThe Australian Government has today announced plans to put employers back at the centre of the skills development process, and ensure the focus is on the ‘Vocation’ in VET.

The New Retail Series will address key skills shortages in the Australian retail workforce – Merchandise Management and Online Retailing – to ensure retailers remain competitive in the global marketplace.

Service Skills Australia drove the development of the program with the aim of delivering more skilled merchandise managers and people with online retailing expertise.

More than 20 participants will take part in the pilot being delivered by the Australian Retailers Association’s Retail Institute. The feedback from the pilot will inform the development of nationally recognised qualifications, ensuring that they meet the needs of industry.

The model will ensure that the industry and in particular, the employers that comprise it, are integrally involved in the future direction and focus of skills development.

This will ensure high quality skills development and training products that meet the needs of employers, providing the specific skills that are required for employees to contribute productively in the workplace.

Service Skills Australia sees high quality training products as a key factor in offering employers assurance that employees have been trained to an industry standard and bring the skills needed to boost workplace productivity.

Service Skills Australia has demonstrated the benefits of an employer led process where flexibility and responsiveness to industry were key, with the current pilot of The New Retail Series.

Yasmin King, CEO Service Skills Australia, said it welcomes the steps being taken by the Australian Government.

“We need a system that is more flexible and responsive to employers’ needs, to ensure a productive workforce that values a vocational education as highly as a university education—VET should be an equal choice, not an inferior choice,” she said.

“This approach needs to become the mainstream way of responding to skills needs, where employers, as well as students, get to determine and then road test the skills being developed, to make sure they are what is needed to perform a particular job role.”

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