Australian regional communities are in focus – comment by CEO Jenny Dodd

Focusing on regional Australia was paramount last week in several different contexts. TDA’s Clean Energy network, which met last Friday, highlighted that many of the jobs needed to support the transition to renewable energy, such as wind energy, will be in the regions. Therefore, it is important that regional communities are in focus if Australia is to have the skilled workforce it needs.

Last Wednesday, I was also part of a panel at the Regions Rising National Summit hosted by the Regional Australia Institute. The topic of the panel was The Building Blocks of Education – getting the foundations right. The discussion was wide-ranging given the nature of the panel members which included Stephanie Tretheway CEO Motherland, Hacia Atherton founder of Empowering Women in Trades and Andrew Paterson CEO of Family Day Care Australia.

Access to childcare, the need for support that will address poor mental health of people in regional communities, and what employers can do to encourage women into traditional trades in the regions were explored. None of these issues are new or unique to regional communities. However, they are exacerbated by the remoteness of those environments and therefore there are high costs to ensure these services are available and even higher costs if they are not.

On the same day, Professor Barney Glover, Commissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia, at his National Press Club address stated ‘everyone in work and training deserves to feel connected … (and JSA) is central to the new skills architecture now being developed and embedded … we are at the forefront of solving the big national challenges, such as gender equality in the labour market”. This attention to gender equality is fundamental for our regions.

One of the current pieces of work being undertaken by Jobs and Skills Australia is their capacity study into the regions. The draft interim report Towards a Regional, Rural and Remote Jobs and Skills Roadmap was also released last week for consultation. (This is not for wide distribution yet).

At the local TAFE level, there is also structural change occurring to prioritise regions. For example, TAFE NSW is implementing a new operating model that is responding to Recommendation 2 of the NSW VET Review Interim report that contains the recommendation that TAFE NSW “prioritises local, regional and community engagement. This should include separate, specific functions that are focused on local and community stakeholder engagement and place-based skills planning.” See the Review.

And then there is the inclusion of specific funding proposed for regional universities in the Universities Accord implementation papers. As per the consultation paper, “needs-based funding would be a core element of the new funding system. Providers would be allocated per-student funding contributions which could be scaled by academic preparedness, (dot point 2) for students studying at regional campuses, recognising the higher costs regional providers face to deliver courses in regional Australia.” See the Consultation Paper.

As we enter National Skills Week (19-23 August) this highlighted place of regional communities and the importance that they receive adequate support for people in the regions to access and succeed in skills development is to be applauded. Through these means, talented people are more likely to stay in the regions and to contribute to their communities.