FSO National Forum:Building a Skilled Workforce
Yasmin Allen AM, Chair and Independent Director, FSO
Opening Keynote Address
March 14, 2024
Thank you, Tony for your welcome to Wurundjeri lands. I too pay my respects to the Wurundjeri people, on whose land we meet today, and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
My name is Yasmin Allen, Chair of the Future Skills Organisation, the Jobs and Skills Council (JSC) for the Finance, Technology and Business Sectors.
It is my great pleasure to welcome you all, to our first National Forum.
We have a strong partnership with Government – and I warmly welcome Richard Bolto, Assistant Secretary, and Cindy Trewin, and their team from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR).
I also acknowledge:
The Hon Brendan O'Connor MP, Federal Minister for Skills and Training (who will address you tomorrow)
Adam Shoemaker, Vice-Chancellor, Victoria University
Craig Robertson, CEO, Victorian Skills Authority
Jenny Dodd, CEO, TAFE Directors Australia
Christine McLoughlin AM, Chair Suncorp
Megan Lilly, Executive Director, Ai Group
Fellow JSCs; and the many stakeholders who provide so much support to our work.
Thank you for joining us, for this unique opportunity to bring together key players from industry, the training sector, unions, community groups and Government.
And thank you to Monash College — Jo Mithen, CEO and Executive Director, Monash College and Jane Trewin, Executive Director Future Skills, Monash College for hosting our forum over the next two days. I am impressed by your modern campus here.
Jo and Jane’s work is a powerful example of the future thinking which delivers the training that industry needs, at pace.
I am passionate about solving our skills challenge. For the benefit of industry, our economy and for society.
Through my other roles, as a director of Santos Ltd, Cochlear and QBE, I sit across some of Australia’s key sectors: health, resources and finance.
All these industries are being fundamentally changed, through digitisation - creating new jobs and changing old ones.
It is causing both competitive threats and revenue opportunities.
We need to rapidly identify and build skilled resources; for now, and into the future, and we need to invest in transitioning our existing workforces.
This is why I am excited by my role at the FSO.
We are about to witness one of the biggest productivity improvements since the advent of the PC (in the late 1970’s). A culmination of billions of dollars of investment in technology, building on each next wave, to today, with generative AI.
The promise of technology is realised when technologies start to converge, and our businesses become end to end digital (rather than technology being siloed into the CTO/CIO area). This new super-cycle could last for decades, providing growth and employment opportunities.
The companies that will jump ahead of the pack, will be those that invest in partnerships, software and people.
It is therefore critical we fill our growing workforce gaps.
Employees want to work in vibrant, modern businesses, who invest in their people. And we need to create environments of continuous, lifelong learning, in the workplace.
According to McKinsey, by 2030, Australia will see a 6% shortfall in the numbers of workers needed, just to maintain GDP; predominantly due to our aging workforce, and further exacerbated by the digital skills gap.
The solution to all this is training: fast, flexible and relevant training.
We at the FSO are ambitious. Skills development is a serious, national issue and we will need some big initiatives to accelerate change.
We want to collaborate and work with you.
We don’t have all the answers.
Did you know that only 46% of VET graduates find a job within 6 months of graduating (NCVER data). This says much about how the VET sector needs to better align with industry.
I find this statistic quite confronting. Not just for economic, but for societal reasons.
We must find a solution to this, driven by the need for successful employment outcomes for our graduates.
Finance, Technology and Business sectors
Finance, technology, and business skills are the powerhouse of the Australian economy. Their influence stretches across every industry and impacts almost every worker.
Around 3 million, or one in five Australian workers, are employed in finance, technology & business occupations.
These specialist roles sit across our economy. For example, more than half of finance graduates are providing finance skills into other industries.
Similarly, only 38% of tech occupations actually work in tech; most of these people are transforming other businesses, across our economy.
We are responsible for the key employability skills which impact every worker. Digital skills underpin every job and 93% of the workforce need digital skills to do their jobs.
At the FSO, we think cross-sector and across the economy — every industry, every worker.
Our work is also, increasingly, being influenced by shifts in technology, such as generative AI.
Jobs in the FTB sector and the skills gap
We are already facing significant skills shortages; in Finance, Technology and Business; specifically:
Cyber security specialists: there are currently around 1,000 vacancies nationally and this shortfall is growing.
Auditors: also face around 1,000 vacancies currently; and
Software Engineers: We have 4,000 vacancies nationally; growing to more than 21,000, by 2028.
The technology sector faces unique challenges and opportunities:
The pace of change in technology means the skills required are constantly evolving – making it hard for our education and training system to keep up – how do we deliver contemporary, skills, rapidly and at scale?
And we must find a way to recognise knowledge and skills, gained on the job. So, as people move through the job market, they take their skills with them — a Skills Passport (which I am very excited about).
Our education and training system
Our education and training system has an important role to play to close these skill gaps across our economy.
Within finance, tech and business:
Higher Education (university) has played the dominant role in our sector, with 48% of people in Finance, Tech & Business (or FTB) holding a higher ed qualification.
But the VET system also plays an important role -
~26% of people in Finance, Tech & Business have a VET qualification, as their highest qualification. This provides important pathways into senior jobs, such as accounting, insurance and cyber security.But, despite increasing demand for these types of skills, completions in finance, tech and business VET courses fell by more than 30% between 2017 and 2022.
VET has an important role in opening pathways to work and learning for a diverse group of people, from different backgrounds. It creates opportunity for the most vulnerable; and
You can EARN while you LEARN.
We must, also not forget the role played by schools and community-based organisations in training.
To address the skills needs, we require all parts of the education and training system to work.
Today, our training system is overly focused on occupations and traditional qualifications, rather than the skills needed in the workplace.
VET can be a rigid, slow-moving system which does not meet the needs of employers in Finance, Tech & Business.
This must be the moment where we make the most of this incredible national asset!
We need a skills-based approach, which emphasises the development of core, future skills, that are transferable across jobs and industry.
And we need you, our industry members to lead this opportunity.
Education and training reform
There is a lot to be done; it will take time. We need to get moving.
We need:
To clarify the respective roles played by our schools, higher education and the vocational education sector.
A flexible system which creates different pathways for people from different backgrounds, who learn in different ways.
Micro-credentialling, to help people learn and develop throughout their working lives; and
Education and training as an enabler, not an end goal.
If we are to realise organisational and individual productivity; we must reimagine what good training looks like:
It should form an essential part of industry investment,
Rethinking how we train; for example, short courses delivered just-in-time, and seamlessly integrated into the flow of work; and
we must deliver at scale and at pace.
The current reforms underwritten by Federal Government are significant and exciting:
Qualification reform to make the system more responsive, more relevant and easier to engage with.
Moving towards a single, unified tertiary sector, with VET and Higher Ed working together. Both have a role. Our fragmented sector has 42 universities, 170 registered Higher Ed providers and approximately 5,000 RTO’s, with little collaboration and inherent inefficiencies. A single, unified system, with the learner at the centre, will simplify learning pathways and enable better industry engagement, so we get the skills we need.
A high priority for us, and Govt, is a National Skills Passport which holds, not only qualifications, but also skills, attributes and experience, to support a mobile, skills-based workforce; and
TAFE centres of excellence - a national network of TAFEs, investing in best practice, digital capability and cross-industry skills, that other educational institutions (schools etc.) can dip in and out of.
At the heart of these reforms, and critical for their success, is the need for an active feedback loop with industry.
What can this look like?
Please use the next 2 days, to tell us what you need.
Help to design and deliver real time solutions; and be prepared to recruit from non-traditional pathways.
The Jobs and Skills Councils play an essential role in this reform agenda:
Our role is to ensure industry has a voice and that your voice is heard.
We are uniquely positioned – as we sit inside the system. We influence policy settings and work with training providers.
We are focused on outcomes, not process.
Our initial work has highlighted some significant areas which need focus:
Training that is fit for purpose and aligned to industry will be valued by both employees and employers.
Our key, target outcome, is an Australian workforce that has the required digital skills.
We need career and education pathways that enable opportunities for people from all backgrounds; and critically
We need to support and scale teachers and trainers to deliver relevant and current training.
With so much to do, it becomes critical that we agree on first priorities.
This is a team effort. We will only get there by working together. Our legitimacy is derived from the quality of the engagement we have.
Our members are a central part of the FSO.
We have more than 50 members, made up of individuals from a range of organisations - across finance, technology, and the business sector.
Thank you for being on our mission.
We are well supported by a strong Board of Directors, from varied industries, who are also passionate about change.
I would like to acknowledge and thank our board for the work they do.
Our Independent Directors:
David Masters, Head of Global Policy and Regulatory Affairs, at Atlassian
Marc Washbourne, CEO, ReadyTech
Rachel Bondi, Regional Vice President, Microsoft Asia
Brendan Hopper, CIO for Technology, at Commonwealth Bank; and
Lindsay Tanner, Non-Executive Director, Suncorp
Our Employer Representative Directors:
David Gandolfo, Quantam Business Finance; and
Sarah Pilcher, Ai Group; and
Our Employee Representative Directors:
Angela Budai, National Policy Officer, Finance Sector Union of Australia; and
Rob Potter, National Secretary, Australian Services Union (ASU)
The next couple of days
In January, we released Version 1 of our Workforce Plan. This will form the basis of our discussions over the next few days.
By the end of the forum, we are looking to identify a small number of high impact activities, which we can implement.
Today, you will hear three panel discussions, looking at finance, technology and business, from different perspectives.
And tonight, you will have the chance to learn more about the impact of AI on education.
Tomorrow, we will reflect on what we have heard, and identify what you think are the most important issues and opportunities.
We want to know your thoughts.
Throughout, you will have plenty of opportunity to meet and network.
Thank you again for taking the time to join us.
I am excited about what we can achieve.
