Assistant Minister for Education and Training Senator Simon Birmingham has urged Australian employers to take part in the Survey of Australian Employers being conducted by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) over coming weeks.
The survey aims to ask 9,000 employers from across the country and from all industry sectors about their experiences on how they meet their skill needs and how staff training needs could be better met.
“The Australian Government knows that a strong business sector is the bedrock of our strong economy and prosperous communities,” Senator Birmingham said.
“We also know that to keep Australian businesses at the forefront of global competition they need more Australians with job-ready skills.
“The Survey of Australian Employers is an important tool to help Australian businesses, the training sector and all governments understand what’s working and where improvement
needs to be made.”
Businesses are randomly selected from the Australian Business Register to participate in the survey, which will be conducted until June 2015.
The Survey of Australian Employers is a biennial survey conducted on behalf of the Australian, state and territory governments. The results will be published on NCVER’s website in late 2015.
The 2013 Survey found:
- 12.4% of employers provided no training to their employees, up 3.1 percentage points from 2011
- The proportion of employers using the vocational education and training (VET) system to meet their skills needs in 2013 decreased by 4.2 percentage points to 51.9% from 2011
The previous survey also found that employer satisfaction with training decreased between
2011 and 2013.
Senator Birmingham said the Australian Government is assisting local businesses by providing access to a $476 million targeted training fund that will help boost productivity and competitiveness across the economy.
“Applications are now open for the new $476 million Industry Skills Fund, which will offer up
to 200,000 targeted training places and support,” Senator Birmingham said.
“This fund is targeted at small and medium sized businesses that need to up skill or retrain
their workers so their business can diversify or take advantage of new market opportunities.”
The fund includes a free service for eligible small businesses, to help them identify
the skills they need to support growth and potential training solutions.
“In a globally competitive economy, businesses need to have skilled, qualified workers so they can be flexible and seize opportunities as they emerge,” Senator Birmingham said.
“The Industry Skills Fund compliments our comprehensive package of VET reforms that aim to
make training more relevant to employer needs and therefore more likely to improve employment outcomes.
“I urge any Australian business contacted by the NCVER to take the ten or so minutes required to answer the questions.
“I also urge more businesses to consider applying for funding under the Industry Skills Fund.
“Both the survey and our investments in skills training will help to develop a better training system. When more Australians have job-ready skills they, their employers and nation
all win.”
Further information about the Industry Skills Fund visit: www.business.gov.au. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis, throughout 2015.
For more information about the Survey of Australian Employers visit: www.ncver.edu.au