can only be alleviated by more flexible approaches to training and education, says Australia’s largest employers’ group.
Education and training is critical to addressing skill shortages, says Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox.With skill shortages worsening across the economy from labourers to professional staff, business leaders told Ai Group that upskilling existing staff and hiring apprentices and trainees would be among their strategies to deal with the looming crisis.
“There is a constant need for upskilling and reskilling, so the system needs to be freer and more agile to deliver that. If I have a base qualification, such as a degree, I don’t need another full qualification. I probably just need a microcredential to give me a very specific skill for the job I am doing right now.”can be accumulatedAi Group chief executive Innes Willox said it was clear that skill shortages were set to become “a significant economy-wide constraint”.
Apprentices and trainees were seen by 17 per cent of bosses as a means of dealing with skill shortages, with 6 per cent saying they would employ recent graduates and 5 per cent saying they would upskill new staff who had just basic CVs.