Delivering the right skills for the jobs of today and tomorrow
Action 7: Create innovative solutions to support future skills development
Innovation and technological disruption are leading to new products, services and changes to work and lifestyle. New occupations are emerging and for many existing occupations, the skills required are changing. The skills system must keep up with future changes and shifts in industries and jobs.
Through Skills Labs and place-based co-design workshops, the Victorian Skills Authority (VSA) is partnering with key stakeholders to deliver an innovative approach to skills development and delivery, a key recommendation from the 2020 Future skills for Victoria: driving collaboration and innovation in post-secondary education and training (the Macklin Review).
Skills Labs
Skills Labs are a collaboration and engagement platform to test and assess new skills solutions. They bring together:
- industry
- employers
- Victorian TAFE Network providers
- other registered training organisations (RTOs)
- the adult and community education sector
- the higher education sector
- communities
- students
- experts
to gather their perspectives, discuss core issues and brainstorm innovative solutions to improve competitiveness, productivity, inclusiveness and sustainability. Their focus is primarily the ‘skills frontier,’ where they identify and address future skills needs.
In doing this, the labs aim to drive improvements to student learning and skill building; contribute new approaches that could shape strategic reform or directions at the state or national level; and provide information about the processes, conditions and approaches that work within a lab to be used to improve subsequent labs. They may also result in the re-design of teaching and assessment methods to be responsive to current and future industry needs.
In partnership with Holmesglen Institute, the first Skills Lab is focusing on the care economy. The lab is exploring changes to the Diploma of Nursing to better prepare graduates to be agile, appropriately skilled and future focused. A key part of the lab is to redesign teaching, learning and assessment practices to provide a more engaging experience for students, resulting in improved learning and ensuring that graduates have the skills that meet the contemporary needs of employers.
The lab will conclude in early 2024 but initial findings are already being shared with other Victorian TAFE Network providers, registration bodies and key stakeholders, demonstrating that innovation in aspects of the delivery of qualifications can be created through highly collaborative co-design processes.
The final report will outline evidence-based approaches that improve skill-building in the Diploma of Nursing, such as new learning resources and assessment practices that can be adopted by other vocational education and training (VET) providers. Other findings are expected to inform policy makers and regulators on areas for improvement to ensure the currency of VET qualifications.
The second Skills Lab will focus on education and training challenges in meeting clean energy skills needs.
Regional engagement officers
In addition to Skills Labs, the VSA’s regional engagement officers are proactively supporting stakeholders to access government programs and initiatives to progress innovative place-based approaches to resolve skills and training issues.
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