By Arthur Blewitt

In mid 2009, AgriFood Skills Australia initiated a regional jobs summit at Narrabri, north western NSW with a view to working with local employers, industry and community leaders and government to address cross-industry attraction and retention issues for the region.

The overall objective was to secure, develop and retain the workforce, now and into the future.  At the jobs summit - attended by 90 employers and community leaders – an advisory group representative of employers from most local industries was established to drive the initiative and take responsibility for forming and delivering agendas and outcomes. 

The group is advised by AgriFood and supported by a full time locally-based development manager - Russell Stewart - funded jointly by AgriFood and NSW’s Department of Industry Investment.  Issues addressed by the group include becoming an ‘Employer of Choice’, operating in a competitive jobs market, enhancing business skills of employers, skills utilisation, contemporary job design and titles, retaining school leavers and developing regional strategies to attract people and workers.

The group is also developing a Regional Skills Formation Strategy to:

• encourage the development of industry and regional career pathways
• utilise existing resources and infrastructure to support skills and professional development
• identify skills needs across the region and skill clusters
• facilitate access to new technologies and industry resources
• break down artificial barriers that preclude people from moving between enterprises and industries within a region, and
• build local capacity to manage skills utilisation on an on-going basis.

The Make it Work approach is one of facilitation, collaboration and capacity building as a means of developing the region’s human capital. 

 A policy and practice focus on engaging local enterprising human capital is the way forward for regions. Because of its highly regionalised presence, its established connections with local business, its size, and its core business of creating human capital through education and training, the vocational education and training sector has an important role in facilitating successful regional growth.

This initiative is demonstrating the importance of addressing regional skills and workforce challenges at the local level.  A similar model is being developed at Emerald in Queensland.