Between mid-2025 and early 2026, Future Skills Organisation (FSO) held Workforce Roadshow sessions in every Australian state and territory. We brought together employers, registered training organisations (RTOs), industry bodies, government agencies and workforce planning professionals from across the finance, technology and business (FTB) sectors to gather feedback and input into the FSO’s Workforce Plan and Data Dashboards.
The intent of these sessions was to hear directly from stakeholders about how work and skills needs are changing, how well current training arrangements are aligned to those needs, and what should shape the priorities of FSO’s Workforce Plan 2026.
This paper summarises the key themes and insights that emerged from the roadshows. While there was strong consistency across jurisdictions, stakeholders also highlighted important differences driven by local labour markets, workforce pipelines and industry composition.
You now have an opportunity to validate these insights through the FSO Workforce Research Survey, with your responses directly informing Workforce Plan 2026.
Summary: Skills in transition
Across the Workforce Roadshows, stakeholders described a workforce system under growing pressure as the pace and nature of work continues to shift. While many of the challenges raised have been highlighted in previous workforce plans, stakeholders consistently noted that multiple pressures are now converging and intensifying their impact:
- Rapid technological change is reshaping roles and skill requirements faster than the current workforce and skills systems can respond, creating uncertainty for employers, learners and workers.
- Leadership and management roles are becoming more complex, with increased expectations around wellbeing, change management and individual capability.
- The structure of the training system is misaligned with contemporary workforce needs, with strong demand for faster, more flexible and modular skills development alongside the continued importance of portable qualifications.
- These challenges are felt most acutely by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which dominate the FTB sectors but are often least well served by existing systems.
What we heard
AI moment is here, and the system is struggling to keep up
AI is reshaping how work is done across FTB. In some sectors, stakeholders reported that AI is already changing role profiles and potentially impacting workforce demand. In others, it is seen as automating routine tasks and raising the bar for entry-level positions. However, stakeholders were keen to access evidence that provides an unbiased picture of AI’s actual impact on job roles, skills requirements, and workforce projections.
Stakeholders called for AI capability to be embedded across all training pathways, not siloed into specialist qualifications. Training options should be available for initial skills development as well as upskilling and reskilling.
Stakeholders told us:
Uncertainty about AI is affecting adoption, skills requirements and worker mobility, and that the workforce planning and training system needs to address this directly.
What FSO is doing:
FSO is developing training products in AI specialist skills and digital capability, and contributing to a National AI Skills Report under the Australian Government’s National AI Plan.
Leaders need a new set of skills for changed workplaces
Leadership and management skills emerged as one of the most urgent and widely shared concerns across the roadshows. Stakeholders painted a consistent picture of managers and team leaders being asked to navigate a genuinely more complex environment:
- Hybrid and remote teams that require deliberate effort to build culture and connection
- A generationally diverse workforce with shifting expectations about the relationship between work, wellbeing and lifestyle
- Rapid technological change that leaders themselves may not fully understand
- Growing accountability for the mental health and engagement of the people around them.
A notable state-based difference
What FSO is doing:
Workforce Plan 2026 will strengthen the evidence base around leadership and management skills, training supply and workforce retention.
The training system needs to be faster, more flexible and more modular
Across every session, stakeholders described training products that take significant time to update and subsequently roll out into market for use by learners, a timeline incompatible with an industry that moves in months.
Funding settings compound the problem, directing investment toward full qualifications when what most employers and workers want is targeted, timely upskilling. However, it was recognised that portability of skills is important for the individual, with full qualifications often used as a proxy during recruitment processes where skills-based hiring has not yet been adopted.
Stakeholders told us:
Most workers and employers don’t need a full qualification, they need the right skills at the right time, and a system flexible enough to deliver that.
What FSO is doing:
FSO is actively working to address the pace and flexibility challenges in the training system through our Training Product Development Activities .
FSO is also running a Training Product Trial (TPT) to test how training products can be brought to market more quickly, without compromising quality.
Small business needs to be at the centre, not the margins
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) dominate the FTB landscape in many jurisdictions but remain underserved, facing barriers of time, cost, access and capability. Stakeholders called for training designed around how small businesses actually work, and for dedicated workforce data that reflects SME realities.
Stakeholders told us that the Workforce Plan is often framed around large employer contexts, and that SMEs need dedicated analysis that reflects their distinct dynamics and constraints. They also called for better resources to help SMEs understand what skills their workforce needs and how to access support.
FSO Workforce Plan response:
A notable state-based difference
Northern Territory stakeholders highlighted a specific dimension of the SME challenge that is less visible in larger jurisdictions: a heavy reliance on professionals flying in from interstate. This fly-in fly-out model of professional services reflects a local workforce pipeline that is challenged by significant skills shortages and is a reminder that the SME workforce challenge varies by location.
Earn while you learn has more to offer, but needs better conditions
There is strong appetite to expand earn while you learn pathways in FTB sectors, but significant barriers remain: reduced federal incentives into traineeships, limited supervisory capacity in small businesses, and low employer awareness.
Stakeholders also called for a broader framing of work-integrated learning across VET, recognising that traineeships are one model among several, and that the principle of earning while learning can and should be extended more broadly across VET pathways.
Stakeholders told us:
A notable state-based difference:
Western Australia stakeholders were particularly focused on the finance sector, where a significant forecast workforce shortfall is compounded by the absence of structured on-the-job learning pathways in VET.
What FSO is doing
FSO published a report in 2025 on earn while you learn pathways in information technology, examining how these models work in practice and where the opportunities lie. Building on this work, FSO is now extending its focus into a pilot for more flexible traineeship delivery, designed to support both upskilling and reskilling of existing workers.
People want to be able to use the Workforce Plan more efficiently
Stakeholders engaged positively with the Workforce Plan and Data Dashboards but requested continued evolution of these products.
The current PDF report is too long for most stakeholders to engage with in depth. People read the executive summary and the recommendations and want the supporting detail to be easier to navigate, through better indexing, sector-specific lenses, and short-form summaries.
On dashboards, the feedback was generally positive with stakeholders appreciating the data and the visual presentation. Feedback centred on wanting:
- More Real-time or near-real-time data where possible,
- More granular breakdowns for regions and sectors, student outcomes, small business specific views, and
- Clearer guidance on how to interpret and apply what they’re seeing.
Stakeholders told us
that time is their biggest constraint, and that an AI agent that could break down information and generate context-specific responses would be transformative.
A notable state-based difference:
Australian Capital Territory and Queensland stakeholders were the most specific about wanting greater methodological transparency to underpin their trust in the product, including a data dictionary, published methodology notes, and clear explanations of how figures are calculated.
FSO Workforce Plan Response
Plans are underway to explore shorter releases, improved digital accessibility and an AI agent to support engagement with the Workforce Plan and Dashboards.
Next steps
The insights from the Workforce Roadshows are directly informing the development of Workforce Plan 2026, including its priority focus areas, analytical lenses and supporting data products.
Stakeholders will have a further opportunity to test and validate these insights through the FSO Workforce Research Survey, open in April 2026, with additional engagement opportunities promoted via the FSO website.
Workforce Plan 2026, alongside refreshed Workforce Dashboards, will be released in mid-2026 as part of FSO’s ongoing, iterative approach to workforce planning.