From insights to impact: Our 2025 action plan
22 January 2025
Last year we listened to more than 1,000 stakeholders from the finance, technology and business sectors. We captured their thoughts and opinions in the Workforce Plan 2024: Agenda for Action and Top 10 Insights 2024.
Now we’re turning these insights into impact. Our aim is to increase the value of vocational education and training (VET) for learners and employers, focusing on the highest impact opportunities to address critical skills gaps.
As work and skills rapidly change, we hear from industry that the most valuable people have transferable and generalist skills, like digital skills, teamwork and problem-solving.
Our action plan balances specialist job-related skills with the broader generalist skills required for an evolving job market.
Working in partnership with industry and training providers, our key focus areas are:
1. Generalist skills
Industry repeatedly tells us that general digital capability skills are the most needed.
To grow these skills nationwide, we will develop training products for general digital capabilities, cyber security and generative AI.
Our Workforce Plan 2024 revealed how broader generalist skills are also a priority. We will evolve the Business Services (BSB) training package, one of the most widely used across various occupations and industries, to focus on generalist skill sets.
2. Specialist skills
Industry leaders tell us that current training packages for specialist skills aren’t keeping up.
We’re taking decisive action to change this. The priority order for this work has been defined by industry, focusing on areas of greatest need.
First priority is to review the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) training package, including cyber security, and update six telecommunications qualifications to improve quality and relevance. We will also define entry level pathways and personas to create important workforce pipelines into the tech sector and develop earn while you learn models.
Then we’ll shift focus to other specialist skills within finance, technology and business, such as training updates for accounts administration, finance and mortgage broking, and insurance.
Given the breadth of the finance, technology and business training sectors, we always maintain the flexibility to respond to urgent needs. For example, with climate-related financial disclosures becoming mandatory, we’re developing training for sustainable finance so auditors, accountants and bookkeepers are ready when the new legislation takes effect.
3. Skills at scale
As industry increasingly values skills over qualifications, we’re scaling a skills-driven future, by:
· Partnering with state and territory governments to share best practices and scale digital skills initiatives
· Developing the VET workforce across finance, technology and business
· Supporting the development of TAFE Centres of Excellence to curate and share best practice
· Deepening industry engagement across the finance, technology and business sectors to reinforce the value of VET
In summary, this plan will help grow the general digital capability skills needed by everyone across the economy; grow the broader generalist skills required for an evolving job market; enhance the relevance of specialist training to keep up with changing needs; and scale capabilities for a skills-driven future.
I am hugely excited by our plan. To have your say and help shape the future of skills, join our community of Collaborators. Together, we’ll create a workforce ready for the future.
Learn more about our FSO Projects here.
Patrick Kidd OBE OAM – CEO, Future Skills Organisation
Published in Future Skills News, FSO’s LinkedIn newsletter here.