VET Education
DR ELIZABETH GIBSON, CMPA General Manager outlines key highlights of the recent Mining SWAP meeting.
The Jobs and Skills Council: the Australian Mining and Automotive Skills Alliance (AUSMASA) Strategic Workforce Advisory Panel (Mining SWAP), met in February 2024 in Melbourne. Dr Elizabeth Gibson is a Member of the Mining SWAP, the sole representative for the extractive industry in Australia (hopefully this will change).
Jobs and Skills Council
A Jobs and Skills Council (JSC) is a not-for-profit company that is industry-owned and industry-led. They are part of a national network of 10 JSCs that provide leadership to address skills and workforce challenges for their industry. They:
• align effort across industries to improve VET system responsiveness,
• build stakeholder confidence,
• drive high-quality outcomes for the VET sector, learners, and business.
JSCs will identify skills and workforce needs for their sectors, map career pathways across education sectors, develop contemporary VET training products, support collaboration between industry and training providers to improve training and assessment practice, and act as a source of intelligence on issues affecting their industries.
Each JSC works closely with Jobs and Skills Australia, drawing on its workforce analysis and projections to plan for their industry sector and creating a consistent approach to addressing skill gaps.
The functions of AUSMASA are as follows:
Workforce planning
• The future of the Australian workforce is changing.
• To identify, forecast and respond to current, emerging, and future workforce challenges and opportunities.
• To be focused on the skills that the mining and automotive industries need to attract workers and sustain our economy.
Training product development
• To be informed by comprehensive workforce analysis.
• To develop responsive and flexible training products.
• To ensure training products have high educational standing and can be readily delivered by Registered Training Organisations (RTOs)
• To pilot emerging products and test new approaches to meet RTO, industry, and learners’ needs.
Implementation, promotion, and monitoring
• To work with industry, government, and training providers to align training packages for learners, their delivery and outcomes, to industry needs.
• To map and promote career pathways in industry and ensure the right training is available to get people into in-demand jobs.
• To listen, consult, and act to drive continuous improvement so that learners can get into jobs faster with the right skills at the right time.
Industry stewardship
• Are independent and industry led.
• Are the trusted voice of industry.
• Work with industry to provide strategic advice to the government and the training sector on skills and workforce training needs.
SWAP Meeting
The following were discussed:
Skills Mapping Project
• Phase One – engaging directly with industry to ascertain the specific skill requirement relation to select roles in the mining industry.
• Phase Two – gap analysis against relevant qualifications and development of peers both current and future workers.
Rehabilitation of Mined land update: Separate (from mines) qualifications were requested for quarry operations.
Careers Progression Mapping Project
• This project will explore the various entry points into the mining industry for the same key roles identified in the skills mapping project. Furthermore, likely career progression opportunities, and the training (both accredited and non-accredited) that supports these, will be explored. Gaps in career progression capabilities will be identified to inform future projects. Other insights may inform the development of better pathway programs, opportunities for bringing non-accredited training programs into the industry. These insights will also be to identify pre-vocational opportunities and paraprofessional roles.
Also raised by Dr E. Gibson
• Quarrying overview
• Mobile equipment operator verification of competency
• Silica dust
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