The Pre-Election Forum on Labour Supply was held at VECCI on 24 October. Our speakers included the Hon. Lynne Kosky, Minister for Education and Training; Victor Perton, representing the Shadow Minister for Education; and the Hon. Bill Baxter MP, National Party spokesman on education.
The Forum generated lively debate on a number of important issues in term of Victoria’s existing labour supply base, our needs for the future, and the major challenges of an ageing population and skill and labour shortage on the social and economic development of the State.
VECCI’s policy document on Labour Supply was released at the Forum and emphasises that the next Victorian Government must:
- Fund a new, targeted marketing campaign aimed at parents and young people promoting the value of apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities
- Encourage the introduction by the Federal Government of modified Australian Apprenticeships for Year 10 students, providing enhanced access to alternative curriculum options as well as improved standards of literacy and numeracy support
- Expand funding of school enterprise skill centres.
- Ensure that Welfare to Work reforms address the risk issues for industry and the provision of work readiness programs for recipients in order to manage their effective transition to work
- Ensure that the training system is sufficiently focussed on retraining and re-skilling older workers in the workplace
- Assess the need for a further increase in Victoria’s share of national migration in order to meet skills and labour gaps over the short to medium term
- Increase Australian and State Government funding for the Victorian training system (embodied in the ‘Government Funded Training Program’) by a minimum additional $25 million per annum over the next three years.
- Ensure that reform of apprenticeships focuses on competence attainment rather than fixed durations.
- Reintroduce payroll tax and Work Cover premium exemptions for apprentices and trainees to act as a stimulus for areas of identified skill shortage, for a 3-year period, subject to review.
For further details, please contact VECCI's economics and industry policy team on (03) 8662 5266.
 Click here to download the Labour Supply Policy Statement
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