Page 1149 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 4 May 2022
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While we cannot predict with certainty what will power our economy in the future, there are strong signs that certain key sectors will play a leading role. We want to strengthen local skills and training capability in these areas to ensure that tomorrow’s workers have the right skills to take advantage of expected jobs growth. These include the technology industries. We want to build on our knowledge capabilities in areas like space, cybersecurity, renewables and digital technologies.
The ACT has significant advantages, as the home of some of Australia’s leading research and scientific institutions. Tomorrow’s technology jobs will call for a mix of skills which draw from the best of the university and vocational education sectors. The newly formed digital skills pilot partnership is a great example of how we are seeking to strengthen skills delivery in this growth area.
The ACT government is partnering with the Canberra Cyber Hub and the national Digital Skills Organisation to deliver a pilot program addressing the current workforce skills shortages in cybersecurity. The 12-month pilot will help to define a standard, setting out the skills required for an entry-level professional in cybersecurity, so that providers, industry and government can then work together to deliver and fund this training.
The building and construction industries are another clear area of growth and will support the ACT government’s record investment in infrastructure and our commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2045. Tackling long-running industry skills shortages while training workers for emerging priorities like sustainable building and the circular economy will ensure that workers benefit from our city’s ongoing growth and development. It will be particularly important to think about ongoing skills development for workers who are already trained and qualified in these sectors.
The need to address climate change through our built environment, along with emerging technologies and materials, is rapidly reshaping what we build and how. CIT is leading the way with some great new courses, which I will speak about in a moment, which are designed to upskill and re-skill existing workers in areas like renewables and zero emissions vehicles.
The caring industries are seeing a strong and ongoing need for local workforce growth as we seek to improve quality of life and care for the most vulnerable in our community. Significant commonwealth and ACT government commitments in aged care, early childhood education and care, disability services and health care more broadly will drive increased investment in these sectors for years to come.
Meeting the ambition of these commitments means skilling many more workers to build and sustain rewarding careers in these critical sectors. Through the JobTrainer initiative running in 2021 and 2022, we have seen a very strong uptake of the free training on offer in these care sectors. This shows that, with the right incentives and support, we can attract new people into these essential industries.
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