"Australia's education and training systems need deep and collaborative reform to develop the skills and capabilities required to drive productivity," Innes Willox, Chief Executive of national employer association the Australian Industry Group, said today.
"Developing workers' capability is fundamental to Australia's productivity and will enable the nation to thrive. On the eve of the third quarter economic growth figures, we must not forget that labour productivity in the Australian economy has declined 2% since the start of the pandemic," Mr Willox said.
Improvements to digital technologies, infrastructure investment, productivity in the care and education sectors and the opportunities from a net zero transition are just some of the benefits of capability development-driven productivity improvement, a paper released today by the Ai Group Centre for Education and Training says.
"A capability development agenda needs to focus on increasing skill levels for a more productive generation of outputs and technological and process improvements, as well as on the more effective use of skills," Mr Willox said.
"What governments can do is to create the environment to make it easier for individuals and businesses to lift their productivity and with it wages and living standards."
Ai Group believes these areas can be successfully tackled by reforming Australia's education and training and policy settings through both system reform and architecture and targeted policy and programs.
"Success cannot be achieved without a robust partnership culture in Australia," Mr Willox said.
"Employers and education providers must be widely connected, with these relationships built into policy design, implementation and delivery and workforce planning.
"Beyond this, success will be dependent on strong connections between economic and workforce development in our country."
The paper, titled Australia's opportunity: a skills and productivity agenda, explores measures for developing capability such as tertiary reform, workforce planning and improved policy integration, work-integrated learning, foundation skills, leadership and management and sustainable diversity and inclusion strategies.
Click here to view the report:
Australia's opportunity: a skills and productivity agenda
