BuildSkills Australia, the Jobs and Skills Council (JSC) for the building and construction, property and water industries, has released its first ever national workforce plan.
BuildSkills CEO Brett Schimming said BuildSkills’ 2024 Workforce Plan: Shaping the Future of the Built Environment, sought to identify and outline the most important strategic issues relevant to the building and construction, property and water industries, through extensive national consultation.
“The Workforce Plan outlines evidence-based insights, observations and trends that can help shape the future of skills and labour in these industries,” he said.
As a JSC, BuildSkills works in a tripartite arrangement with industry, unions and government to provide a framework for tackling current and emerging workforce challenges.
“The Plan also outlines a series of coordinated actions that BuildSkills will undertake with stakeholders to begin this transformation towards a workforce that aligns with the skills and labour needs of industry,” Mr Schimming said.
One of the insights identified by the Workforce Plan is the increase to the workforce that is needed to address national priorities, such as housing supply.
“We’ve looked at several ‘megatrends’ which are increasing the demand for labour, including the Net Zero transition and national housing shortages, and have considered factors that influence the availability of labour,” Mr Schimming said.
Mr Schimming highlighted the Workforce Plan’s original modelling of the size of the workforce that would be required to meet the increased demand, while also projecting a ‘business-as-usual’ labour supply scenario based on Australia’s changing demographics.
“It’s important to note that the modelling isn’t a prediction of labour shortages, but predictions of what’s required to support the delivery of the nation’s pipeline of work.
“There are two strategies to meet these growing workforce demands: convince more workers to join our sector (increase participation) or lift output per worker through upskilling and adopting new technology (improve productivity),” he said.
BuildSkills’ Workforce Plan contains actionable insights to increase participation and improve productivity that complement the existing and significant Commonwealth Government’s skills reform agenda, bringing together national priorities with State and Territory initiatives to provide strong economic and social outcomes.
“BuildSkills' strategic response to workforce challenges facing our industries is designed to enhance and leverage the investments and commitments of governments to ensure Australians have access to training and career pathways and acquire the skills and capabilities they need to obtain well-paid, secure jobs, and that Australia has the skilled workforce it needs now and into the future,” Mr Schimming said.
BuildSkills’ Workforce Plan contains 18 strategic actions to address workforce challenges and strengthen the pipeline of skilled workers for the built environment industry sectors, with early actions underway.
“BuildSkills is currently undertaking a project on the future of VET in the building and construction, property and water industries with the aim to ensure that training packages keep up with the sector’s rapidly evolving jobs and skills requirements,” Mr Schimming said.
“There is important work underway by all governments to address workforce challenges and skills shortages, but we need more granular data and modelling to determine what additional reforms and actions are required to increase participation and improve productivity.”
“BuildSkills has been funded by the Australian Government to work with Jobs and Skills Australia to undertake a Housing Workforce Capacity Study to understand the likely scale of labour market adjustment needed to deliver the National Housing Accord ambition, and the levers available to increase the supply of skilled residential building labour,” Mr Schimming said.
BuildSkills’ 2024 Workforce Plan: Shaping the Future of the Built Environment and an At a Glance report can be downloaded here.
A new interactive data dashboard that includes national and state-based data sets around workforce balance, labour flows and workforce supply gap projections for the next 10 years can be found here.
ENDS
Media Contact: Chris Reid | +61 411 284 474 | chrisr@buildskills.com.au
