Australia’s Industry Skills Council (ISC) together with industry bodies gathered at Parliament House in Canberra for the ISC’s job conference, which explored the critical skills shortage facing industry and the role that industry training packages can play in equipping new entrants and existing workers with valuable skills.

Leaders from the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Australian Chamber of Commerce Industry and Australian Industry Group today signed an ‘Industry Compact’ that was presented to the government and Coalition representatives, reaffirming their support for the centrality of industry training packages as the currency of the country’s VET system.

ACCI chief executive Peter Anderson, AI Group CEO Innes Willox and ACTU president Ged Kearney agreed that countries that could out-skill us would out-compete us in what’s widely recognised as a global skills race.

“We need the VET system and policymakers to understand that industry training packages aren’t just a codification of skills and knowledge needed to work effectively in a given job role, they’re one of industry’s most prized strategic assets in building a world-class workforce and securing our position in the global economy,” the signees said.

In 2011, about 1.4 million students enrolled in qualifications from industry training packages.

The identification of key skill issues to support productivity growth across the country, including digital literacy and management skills, was discussed in the conference’s Q&A session.

The conference also addressed measures to ensure quality skills development outlined in a recent report by the Industry Skills Council.

The report proposed the incorporation of industry-defined delivery and assessment measures within high-risk/high-priority, nationally endorsed qualifications.