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brought to you by the Queensland Water Skills Partnership |
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The Queensland Water Skills Partnership hosted its eighth annual Water Skills Forum on Thursday 27 March 2025 at Parliament House. Around 80 people attended the event with a good spread of our key stakeholders in attendance including water managers, HR professionals, Registered Training Organisations, Government officials and more.
The theme for the event was Putting People at the Heart of Innovation. The event included a QUT WISE Lab Tour and drinks reception on 26 March.
An image gallery of the forum is available here.
We thank the following speakers for participating on the day and sharing their engaging content:
Official Welcome
by The Honourable Amanda Stoker, Assistant Minister for Finance, Trade, Employment and Training
The event was officially opened by The Hon Amanda Stoker, Assistant Minister for Finance, Trade, Employment and Training. Amanda highlighted the importance of the urban water sector as an essential service and her department’s support for the important work we are delivering to ensure we have a skilled workforce.
Water Skills Partnership Welcome
by Water Skills Partnership Chair, Amber Robinson
Amber talked about the importance of the Water Skills Partnership in delivering skills and training solutions to its members.
Keynote Address
by Michael Malakellis, Principal Director at KPMG
The keynote address by Michael Malakellis, Principal Director at KPMG, provided a macro view of sectoral trends. Michael highlighted four ways that the water sector can meet employment challenges:
- Reduce demand for labour
- Attract workers from other industries
- Draw from the pool of unemployed workers
- Supplement workers from overseas
All these options have their own unique challenges which, as a sector, we need to work through.
Challenges for the Sector and Encouraging Innovation
by David Wiskar, Program Director, QWRAP
David Wiskar provided an excellent overview of the history of funding, with changes in 2009 leading to the current system of Grant Olympics where water service providers need to compete for funding to deliver essential services. This has led to critical asset failures and high debt for regional and remote water service providers. David suggested four solutions:
- Long term asset planning
- Realistic cost for service delivery
- Government funding of essential services
- Removing the MAC
David also touched on the effects of creeping regulation around PFAS and other chemicals of concern placing an additional financial burden on WSPs. Our members also struggle with the huge amounts of Telco infrastructure on water assets and having to cope with climate disasters.
FNQWA Water Capability Project
by Amanda Hancock, Regional Strategic Infrastructure Coordinator for the FNQ Regional Organisation of Councils (FNQROC)
Amanda provided an update on the Far North Queensland Water Alliance (FNQWA) Water Capability Plan. The plan provides a framework of solutions for Processes, People (skills and knowledge), Integration, Systems and Data. The FNQWA held a strategic gap analysis workshop with operators and identified service delivery capability gaps. Through regional collaboration they identified 11 regional water capability initiatives and identified delivery partners to develop actions and timelines. Initiatives include standardised SOPs and design specifications, driving change in government funding and building a strong water workforce.
Skills Assessments in QWRAP Regions
by QWRAP Program Director David Wiskar and Adrian Blinman, TRILITY
David Wiskar and Adrian Blinman from TRILITY provided an update on the skills assessment work being delivered in the Wide Bay Burnett Urban Water Alliance (WBBUWA) and North West Queensland Water and Sewerage Alliance (NWQWSA) QWRAP regions.The work involved the mapping of 80 units of competency and aligned it with workers at specific work sites requiring particular safety training in high-risk areas.The data will be stored in a new SWIM™ module called swimskills™ which will provide skills gap data to HR and line managers.
Beyond AI: Exploring technologies to improve training at Unitywater
BY Kenan Hibberd, Executive General Manager People & Corporate Services and Dionne Nowak, Learning and Development Manager at Unitywater
The Unitywater team undertook a review of their services to see where AI could increase productivity, looking at the scope and complexity of legal, governance and HR. They used the Water Industry Worker learning pathways and worked on delivering information to people in simple, sufficient ways. The review found that 48 learning activities needed to be delivered over 16 days within the first 6 months to be job ready. By using Verification of Competency, they could divide groups into a continuum of no experience, some experience and those who were already highly skilled who only required gap training. On day 1, a new starter will talk through their experience and Unitywater will develop a training plan for that individual. Unitywater estimates that this system saved them $113,955 in training costs to date.
Connecting the Talent Pipe: Understanding and addressing critical talent priorities
by Steve Clark, Partner at KPMG Consulting
Steve identified two types of people at the workplace – engineers and HR – and they approach tasks in different ways according to the strategies they are trained to work in. Integrating these approaches and finding synergies are crucial. Steve also highlighted the importance of trust, especially when the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) doesn’t match the reality of the organisation. A compelling EVP must be aspirational, distinctive and true. Focusing on purpose driven work through branding, career development, reward and recognition, leadership, nature of work and the organisational culture. Then, taking these learnings to the worksite through a deep analysis of the workforce and deliver short, accessible e-Learning. AI can provide a consequence-free environment to test responses and feedback.
Workplace Health and Safety Technology in Banana Shire
by Rick Fox, Co-founder of Fr@nk Capability Leaders
Rick provided an excellent case study of Workplace Health and Safety training at Banana Shire Council. Rick and his team ran a Large Language Model (LLM) to assess comprehension of the WH&S Procedures and found that procedures needed to meet Grade 9 reading levels. They then simplified procedures for real-world use, mapping usability procedures to different users by including navigation markers and breaking procedures into no more than 8 steps with no more than 13 words per step.
DIY Talent in Cairns
by Josh Smith from Cairns Regional Council
The journey for new positions to manage the additional water source included a business case for additional operators was eventually granted after a subsequent business case escalated risk to CWSS1. Council advertised on Careers in Water, LinkedIn, Seek, on Council’s website and at WIOA industry events, but to date only one of the new Operator positions have been filled. The Position Description allowed for growth personally and industry wide, formal and informal training opportunities and being on site for commissioning. Josh highlighted the importance of the Water Industry Worker program in providing training opportunities, increasing collaborative networks, site visits and technology exposure and capacity and capability uplifts.
Resilience in Action
by Luke Sawtell, Head of Risk, Insurance, Security and Resilience at Urban Utilities
Luke provided an overview of emergency response through the Water Services Sector Group (WSSG) and the Trusted Information Sharing Network (TISN). As an essential service, the water sector manages critical infrastructure that requires security and resilience. Luke’s case study involved using the Australian Water Sector Mutual Aid Guidelines to respond to Tropical Cyclone Jasper, the wettest cyclone in history. The team used a decision tree to understand the impact and then identified the skills required to respond through the Mutual Aid Coordination Cell (MACC). Lukes’ presentation touched on the way disaster recovery is funded after the event, how organisations contribute, clarity on roles and responsibilities and the need for emergency management training exercises.
AI Powered Learning
by Andrew Smith, CEO of Scientia (Area 9/Lyceum)
Andrew talked about AI powered learning for the water sector and the findings from a Proof of Concept (POC) delivered in partnership initially with WSAA, and now a new POC with qldwater. The initial POC involved 100+ learners using metacognition to move learners from unconscious incompetence to conscious competence in a working from heights course. The course tracks learner engagement on a journey to competency, not completion.
New Card Courses
by Sarah Henry, WSP Manager
Last but not least, Sarah Henry provided an update on qldwater training courses including the new Teal Card for water quality testing and the Grey Card for working with Asbestos Cement pipes. Please email skills@qldwater.com.au to get access to the Teal Card. The Grey Card will be released following the webinar on the High Pressure Water Jetting (HPWJ) exemption for the water sector on 4 April 2025.
And finally, a big thanks to our event sponsor TRILITY
