Edition 62, November 2008

Funding for existing worker training partnerships

A new partnership between the Australian Government and industry to pilot training for the existing workforce through a series of National Enterprise Productivity Places Program trials has been announced.

The trials will begin over the next six months and will be a joint venture between the national Industry Skills Council network and large national enterprises to offer more than 1250 training places to increase the skills of existing workers.

This innovative pilot cuts across a diverse range of industry sectors to directly address chronic skills shortages affecting industry and continues the Government's commitment to protect the Australian economy by securing jobs and strengthening productivity.

The Australian Government will cover up to 50 per cent of the cost for training places, providing around $3 million. The national enterprises will provide the remaining funding.

The pilot builds on the already successful implementation of the Productivity Places Program for jobseekers, which has delivered over 58 000 enrolments across Australia with 15,000 people already completed training.

Training will be provided as part of these initial trials in areas such as food and meat processing, frontline management, gas industry operations, retail operations, customer contact and aircraft maintenance.

The trials are the first of their kind and are a joint venture between the national Industry Skills Councils and enterprises to collaborate and address the skills and training needs of their workforces, providing training opportunities for their employees.

The national trials build on the projects already underway in partnership with a number of states and territories including Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory, Tasmania and Queensland, focussing on identified skill shortages in these areas.

For more information and a list of national enterprise productivity places program trials visit http://mediacentre.dewr.gov.au/mediacentre/Gillard/Releases/GovernmentandIndustryPartnershipstoTrainWorkers.htm

This page was generated on 23 December, 2009

Tag cloud Tags: productivity places program. Click here to view the tag cloud.