Australia needs to adapt to a change global labour market, where work can be moved around the globe at the stroke of a pen and restructuring is increasingly becoming a regular occurrence, according to the Australian Workplace Productivity Agency (AWPA).

It is in this global environment that AWPA's new skills strategy, Future focus 2013, has been developed.

The strategy, and the accompanying report, found that Australia's labour pool will grow by an estimated 3.5 million people by 2025, and demand for higher education qualifications will outstrip the demand than the level of TAFE and vocational qualifications by 2025.

By 2025 more than 70 per cent of Australia’s workforce will have post-school qualifications, compared to today’s figure of 60 per cent. And, three out of five new jobs will be technical, professional or managerial, with one million more professionals likely to be in our workforce.

The research shows Health Care and Social Assistance, Professional, Scientific and Technical Services and Education and Training will be our most rapidly expanding industries, and will add more than 50 per cent of the new jobs.

“Improving our skills and increasing our productivity will be vital in sustaining Australia’s economic growth and prosperity," AWPA Chair, Philip Bullock said.

“Economic restructuring will continue, maybe at an even faster pace, hence a critical element will be Australians having the skills they need to adapt to the change and transitions which occur. It will also be critical that those on the margins have access to new skills so they can re-integrate into the workforce. None of this is easy however Australia has a solid base upon which we can build."

The Future focus: 2013 National Workforce Development Strategy outlines how Australia can develop its knowledge economy and workforce to meet current and future needs, including by:

  • Increasing our pool of tertiary qualifications by 3 per cent per annum to 2025 with higher qualifications needing to grow faster
  • Driving improved productivity in workplaces by providing greater access for industry to government funding for workforce development and by gaining a better understanding of the capabilities of Australia’s managers
  • Adopting a range of measures to lift our participation rate, including focussing on marginal and older workers and men and women in non-traditional occupations
  • Continuing to raise language, literacy and numeracy levels as a critical national priority, through five-yearly sampling of performance, better marketing of existing programs and targeted funding
  • Ensuring the tertiary sector is adequately funded by lifting investment by at least 3 per cent per year with contributions from individuals, organisations and governments
  • Continuing to lift the quality of the tertiary sector, by introducing external assessment of selected VET courses.
  • “By adopting these recommendations, Australia will be making an investment in skills which will better enable us to prepare for the future. In a fiscally constrained environment, we believe that the benefits of this investment will far outweigh the cost,” Mr Bullock said.

The strategy can be found here