Agony And Ecstasy

How quizzical the life of Dr Phil must be. Psychiatrist to the stars, there is no doubt that even this magical fellow would have been rendered impotent at first blush of the vastness and complexity of the disorders revealed by our readers since our expose on obsession last week.

Last week’s “e News” certainly stirred the thick morass of community obsession and so, at the risk of becoming an “agony aunt”, it would be irresponsible of me not to respond to a couple of desperate pleas for help.

Dear Kerri of Andrews Farm.
Dedicating an entire room in your house to your collection of more than 10,000 vinyl records, or LP’s in “Boomer” lexicon - of which you are no doubt a member - is seriously obsessive. It is clear that your ongoing compulsion to hoard is being constrained by space issues but I have a solution for you. A few years ago, a marvellous invention known as the compact disc or CD, revolutionised the storage and retrieval of “digitized” data, including music, and at approximately one quarter the size of conventional records you would have the potential to store up to 4 times or 40,000 albums in the same space as you have dedicated to your obsession within your home, should you embrace this “new age” technology. So start replacing all of your LP’s with CD’s and you will soon have enough space to install a CD player, “in”, and not “on”, which to load and listen to your “muzak”. Furthermore, if you put all of your old records out for recycling you’ll start to feel better about yourself almost immediately because you’ll be helping the environment as well – just remember to forward dear editor all of those albums currently valued at more than $1,000 each, for special recycling.

Finally, and this was indeed a recurrent theme of the outpouring of obsessions reported by our readers this week, Fiona of Somerton Park writes “How do I get a man like Vince to commit to a relationship with me? I date plenty of great guys and consider myself really interesting but after a couple of hours of me talking with them about relationships their eyes roll around in the backs of their heads like bad poker machines”.

Well Fiona, nothing scares a man more than the “C” word – commitment – but you keep on feeding the slots and eventually, one will pay off – I promise.

And so, with obsequious bow, I beseech thee, please do not write or speak anymore requesting assistance or advice with your obsessions because, as it is, without fear of contradiction, I have enough problems of my own.

Last weekend we witnessed another of our great inclusive social institutions at work – the ubiquitous Australian summit. This time with 2020 vision, our community leaders have charged our elected leaders with the responsibility of making Australia a more prosperous fairer and better place to live in the future – a kind of Shangrila for the rest of the world to aspire to.

In the week that we are reminded of the tremendous sacrifice the sons’ and daughters’ of Australia have made in defence of our Country and way of life, it seems almost blasphemous, given the timing of the summit, that the big ticket item was the inspiration that Australia should be “processed” into a republic – yet again. This was not the Bob Hawke style of summit of 1983, which focussed on the economy, but a cosmic journey into a brave new world of economic, social and political engineering. A complete overhaul of state and federal taxes and national coordination of infrastructure, “face book” style “on-line” medical records and the overhaul of federalism. There were some wonderful ideas generated at the Summit, which if only implemented in part would create an agenda of massive change for the next 10 - 20 years, the likes of which we have never before seen in Australia.

One idea not canvassed at the 2020 Summit but perhaps worthy of thought though - the grand architect of the wild colonial summit - the old “Silver Bodgie” - to become the first President of the Republic of Australia. Either Bob or Sir Les Patterson will get my vote.

In this week’s edition of Status e News, we take a look at an issue largely overlooked at last week’s Summit, and outline the Governments’ response to the chronic skills shortage in the labour market and what it intends to do in Skilling Australia for the Future. We also introduce two new “Employee Hot Prospects”, which can be accessed from the “hot chilli” link at right and, announce the winner of our Round 5 Footy Tipping Competition.

Enjoy the long weekend.

The National economy is currently operating near full employment with unemployment at a generational low of around four percent. Going forward, given the ageing of Australia’s population, this shortage of labour will become more acute, especially the shortage of appropriately skilled workers. The lack of skilled workers, so apparent for some time and reaching worrying proportions, is one of the greatest threats to South Australia’s continued economic growth. Skilled workers are desperately needed in a variety of industries including mining, defence development and construction, infrastructure, commercial and domestic building, tourism and hospitality, human services including child and aged care and emerging rural industries such as aquaculture.

Within a decade, as older members of the workforce retire at a time of increased industry demand, a shortage of skilled workers could send our State into the twilight zone – a state of restrained excitement and suspended animation – but we are not alone! Other states and other mature industrialised economies are facing similar shortages. Yet, significantly, along with the need to improve broadband quality and tackle the national water shortage, issues also of vital importance to the South Australian economy, little was said about skilled labour shortages at the 2020 Summit.

However, in early April, the Australian Government released a discussion paper - Skilling Australia for the future – which outlines the Commonwealth’s commitment to provide an additional 450,000 training places over the next four years designed to lift workforce participation and productivity in Australia. These training places, to be delivered under the Productivity Places Program, will be split approximately 60/40 targeting current workers who need to maintain or upgrade their skills and those outside the workforce who need intensive training to be job-ready.

The Government contends that many existing workers already have skills and experience that should and can be formally recognised by training providers. By providing existing workers with higher level skills, workers will be far better positioned to transfer their skills to other areas in the workplace and be able to adapt more quickly to the changing needs of an enterprise and the economy. The 275,000 places allocated to existing workers include 45,000 places for Australian Apprenticeships. The Commonwealth Government has proposed to the states and territories that places for existing workers will be funded through “cooperative arrangements”, where 50 per cent of the funding will be met by the Commonwealth and 40 per cent by the states and territories. It is proposed that employers will make a contribution of 10 per cent of the cost of training for existing workers.

The Program also aims to assist job seekers to participate in training leading to endorsed national qualifications so as to acquire the skills they need to participate successfully in the workforce, secure sustainable employment and “play a full role in Australian life”, while providing the additional skilled labour required by industry and the economy. The 175,000 places for job seekers, including 20,000 Australian Apprenticeships, will be fully funded by the Commonwealth. There will be some places at Certificate II level delivered through the job seeker element of the Program. These training places will provide job seekers with a set of skills designed to improve their future employment prospects.

A new statutory body, Skills Australia, will provide advice to the Government on current and future skills needs. Based on this advice, the Government will nominally allocate priorities by industry, jurisdiction and level of training. Strengthened Industry Skills Councils will work with employers and workers’ representatives to identify enterprises’ training needs and match those needs with training leading to endorsed national qualifications delivered by Registered Training Organisations, such as Status Employment Services. The vast majority of places will be at higher qualification levels [Certificate III level or higher] in order to fulfil the higher skills needs of the economy today and in the future.

The functions that Skills Australia will undertake are outlined in the Skills Australia Act 2008. Skills Australia will:

• analyse current and emerging skills needs in the Australian economy – both in the broader economy and demands across industry sectors
• assess evidence from commissioned research and industry stakeholders to inform Australia’s workforce development needs
• distribute information from research and consultations with stakeholders to enable entrepreneurs, businesses and workers to have the necessary information to inform their training and employment decisions
• provide the Government with recommendations on current and future skills needs to help inform decisions to encourage skills formation and drive ongoing reforms to the education and training sector, including priorities for the investment of public funds

“Working Nation” revisited? If you’ve been around long enough to remember then you’re probably old enough to forget. However, no longer allowed that luxury you can also forget about retirement - your Country needs you now and tomorrow and the next day and the next and the…

Julie Hatwell, left, Executive Manager-Finance
with Sue Parker

Kerri Huckel, right, Executive Manager: Employment Services, Edwardstown
with Edith Thew