Top 10 Insights 2024
Industry Engagement
The fast-changing skills needed in the workforce highlight the importance of strong partnerships between industry and training providers.
Industry leaders are concerned that current training programs often do not adequately prepare learners with the necessary skills for employment, particularly the existing training in the financial services and information and communications technology (ICT) sectors.
Training providers develop programs based on the units of competency and industry needs, but they find it challenging to keep up with the increasing pace of change. Currently it can take 18 months to update an existing qualification.
As a result, we hear that industry and learners are increasingly favouring vendor certifications and in-house training for upskilling and reskilling.
Industry and training providers agree that the system needs to change and that working together is essential to ensure training stays relevant and equips learners with the skills required. Clearer articulation of skill requirements is key to success.
Consideration must also be given to how best to incentivise employers to collaborate with training providers.
During 2024, we identified that investment by enterprise employers can have a significant impact on successful skills and training development.
One example is Suncorp. With the help of Mentem by the University of New South Wales (UNSW), it is using targeted reskilling programs to create new career pathways.
Small business stakeholders said they also benefit from such schemes run by larger organisations as they help to provide an experienced talent pipeline in the longer term.
Transforming insights into Action
FSO will partner with Industry to develop high priority training products to address some of their most urgent skills needs. We will continue to develop simple mechanisms which support industry engagement with the training sector.
Insights from FSO Forums help shape future
Over 300 finance, technology and business stakeholders from unions, employers, industry, training providers and government have helped shape the future of skills at this year’s FSO Forums.
The FSO National Forum in Melbourne in March and State and Territory Forums in South Australia, Western Australia, and Queensland enabled us to engage deeply with our stakeholders and provide the opportunity to input to our priorities.
Feedback received at these Forums helped development of our projects, such as FSO’s activity in Qualifications Reform, to test ways to develop more current and responsive training products.
The second National Forum will take place on 13 August 2025, in Canberra. Additional State and Territory Forums are also planned for 2025.
Read summary insights from the first FSO National Forum and State and Territory Forums.
“Tech today is a fast-moving train without a destination, keeping up is impossible. No one individual can tackle the challenges on their own. It’s time to work as one.”
Gail Bray, Executive Director, Digital Transformation & Quality Learning, Victoria University
To ensure industry engagement, we're driven by a community of experts who work in or support the finance, technology and business sectors.
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60 company members
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62 members of our engagement network taskforces
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1,000 stakeholders consulted
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2,000 collaborators
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6,600 LinkedIn followers
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44,000 website visits
