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VOICE BOX OPINIONS FROM ACROSS THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY
Will manufacturing get results from the Jobs and Skills Summit? The ‘Jobs and Skills Summit’ will not deliver for the metals manufacturing industry. Coordinator for the Vernier Foundation, Jack Parr says what is needed is new thinking underpinning a radical plan. Despite all the rhetoric about the importance of Manufacturing to our future economy, its needs were subsumed at the “Jobs and Skills Summit” by wider political interests. The Minister of Science and Industry seems to believe that the summit outcomes around skill shortages work on the basis of “one size fits all”, as manufacturing is not mentioned at all in his last AMT article. However, the summit outcomes on addressing skill shortages will do little for manufacturing, as this sector with its SME dominance, needs a specific plan; a message endorsed by Innes Willox of AIG in his AMT piece, “We need urgent and wholehearted action … on a pipeline of skilled workers for at least the next decade”. What were the summit outcomes and why will they not address manufacturing’s skill challenge? An increase in free TAFE places to boost education and training, an increase in short term skilled migration and the development, initially through an ‘Employment White Paper’, of an overarching roadmap to, “build a bigger, better trained and more productive workforce”. Unfortunately, while the TAFE increases will benefit other sectors of the economy; TAFE training, as it stands, is not a viable solution for advanced manufacturing and engineering skills. They cannot meet industry’s current needs in knowledge and resources, let alone the equipment and people to match the increasing pace of advanced manufacturing and accompanied automation. Some enlightened companies have had to establish their own ‘apprentice training facilities’ to negate this weakness. Relying on migration of those with advanced manufacturing skills is problematic because these skills are already in short supply and high demand in the global marketplace. The White Paper delivery is a year away and in typical political fashion, the terms of reference are so wide and all-embracing that the specific needs of manufacturing will be drowned again. While there are several inspirational companies, manufacturing, in terms of skills, productivity and innovation is now far behind other countries. It needs a focused, radical plan. A plan that will start to deliver world class innovative products and performance. A plan that starts with skills! The first action should be to make a real and substantial investment in STEM in schools. It was recognised in 2016 that STEM education in Australia, lagged many other developed countries, yet it was never funded or prioritised. Schools that prioritise STEM have to self-fund their teacher training and the necessary resources and find time in a too-crowded curriculum. What is needed is a massive injection of investment funds to accelerate STEM education. There are around 3,500 secondary level schools, both public and independent. To give each of these schools a $100,000 start-up grant would only cost $350m. The radical element is that it should be non-conditional. It must be a risk investment with minimum rules and bureaucratic approvals. With the proper industry involvement and guidance, the money could drive a massive acceleration of future skill sets. This acceleration could gain further momentum with industry providing additional expert advice to support the schools STEM teaching. Radical thinking is needed for more immediate solutions. Einstein said, “We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”. This is what is occurring in TAFEs and tertiary education. If companies sending trainees to TAFE is not a solution; let’s deliver the TAFE to the companies and develop
AMT DEC/JAN 2023
a new type of learning program that delivers appropriate skills and qualifications. In June’s ‘AMT,’ AIG’s Megan Lilly complemented this concept. She argued that, “[Industry] Qualifications need to be able to be designed differently, combined differently and be accessible across contexts in many more ways.” She suggested this “questions funding models, the role of institutions and the relationship between learning and credentialling.” Lilly concluded this would involve a system of collaborative hubs – Centres of Vocational Excellence – with strategies to meet skill needs of all local employers. To make this happen, the manufacturing ‘community’ needs to be united. If they can no longer expect the government to deliver, then they must be prepared to do the lifting themselves. The individual skills, knowledge and expertise that sits with individual companies needs to be shared, such that all parties, companies, educators and representative bodies are collective, collaborative, and participative. A first step would be a pilot scheme where a small group of companies and an education provider, across a range of technologies and skills, form a ‘wheel and hub’ where trainees, both apprentice and mature, move through and across the companies with the qualification provider acting as the spokes and hub to oversee the needs of the current qualification, while also developing a new contextual qualification. Of course, this means the collaborative companies must be prepared to invest time and resources, for the good of the whole industry. The program would be steered by a small team from the collective with additional impartial guidance from other collegiate advisors. This could be an ideal way for advocacy organisations like AIG, ACCI, and locally SEMMA, SEBN and AMTIL to become more integrated and participative with the manufacturers themselves. There is a lot of rhetoric about the value of a strong manufacturing sector but there is a grave danger that while fighting all the current economic ‘alligators’, the government will neglect the real needs of the industry. Presented here are two radical and ambitious ideas; but as the Chinese proverb says, “the longest journey starts with the first step.” What is clear is something must radically change, and governments never take radical, risky steps! Therefore, the industry itself must do more and innovating our skills training model is achievable! It is radical, but without radical rethinking, how is Australia in ten years, going to become a real advanced manufacturing nation! Jack Parr is the Coordinator for the Vernier Foundation, a charity aimed at funding and supporting STEM education in schools. The Foundation is the charitable arm of the Vernier Society, an organisation that for nearly 80 years has worked to support Victorian Manufacturing. vernier.org.au