Skills eFlash #111

Date: 17-Nov-2022

Information for Water Industry Managers, Human Resources Personnel and Employees in the Queensland Water Industry
(Issue #111 - 17 November 2022)

Welcome Neil Holmes & Kirsty Hills
Workforce Snapshot Report
National Approach to Water Training
RTO Market Update
Water Industry Worker Secures QWRAP Funding
Training Package Cases For Change
Micro-Credentials Update
Online Training Courses update
Careers Website update
Federal Budget Highlights
Fundamental Webinars

1. Welcome Neil Holmes & Kirsty Hills

Neil Holmes has joined our team as the new Skills Partnership Manager. Neil is passionate about the water sector with more than 20 years’ experience in advocacy, advisory and consulting experience in the commercial water industry sector.

Neil moved to Australia from the UK in 2019, establishing a water cost audit consultancy to help businesses streamline processes to reduce their water bills. Prior to moving to Australia, Neil was Operations Director for Water Watch UK where he managed all aspects of water investigations and audits including analysis of documentation, billing, legislation, policies and Water Acts. Neil is a big picture thinker with passion for the sector and lots of great ideas and will be a great asset to our team. His first job will be to meet as many water skills partners as possible, so please get in touch and introduce yourselves to Neil by email to nholmes@qldwater.com.au and phone 07 3632 6851.

Kirsty Hills has taken over the Project Support Assistant role from Naomi Carragher, whose last day was Nov 11^th. A huge loss for us but a great career progression for Naomi; we wish her all the best in that new role.

Kirsty brings with her lots of experience as a project manager having spent the last 7 years as Project Officer with Queensland Health. Prior to that, Kirsty completed a number of short-term contracts including a stint with Seqwater where she wrote procedures and workplace health and safety awareness modules for online training packages. This role sparked an interest in the water sector, which is what attracted Kirsty to applying for the job with qldwater, and we were fortunate to fast-track her recruitment so Naomi could do a proper handover before she left.

2. Workforce Snapshot Report

qldwater produces a Workforce Snapshot Report every two years, and we are preparing to gather data for the next report soon.

Shaun Johnston kindly prepared a data collection template which aims to establish an industry award for operators to distinguish between those with qualifications but no experience vs those with lots of experience but no qualifications. There was general agreement at the latest skills meeting that Shaun’s data collection template may work for small Councils but not for large entities like Seqwater. At a meeting with working group members Shaun and Penny Lynn from the Gold Coast, it was decided to continue using the same data collection template as previous years to enable us to track trends, but to use some of Shaun’s suggestions for a more detailed research report similar to one recently released by the NSW Government to be funded through QWRAP (more info below).

The template will be emailed over the next couple of weeks, so please keep an eye out and forward it on to the correct person in your organisation to help us gather the data.
qldwater will also host a ‘Snapshot Census Day’ Teams meeting where members can ask questions and get clarification on the data required.

3. National Approach to Water Training

qldwater have been actively participating in the WSAA War for Talent campaign with two spin-off working groups:

An industry-wide Employee Value Proposition to attract people to the industry. As part of this group, qldwater will have access to a wide range of shared documents from across Australia which can be shared with our members. The shared resources will lead to a combined national campaign for the water sector, with WSAA making a substantial financial contribution to engage an external provider to kickstart the campaign.
Investigating a national water sector jobs board including opportunities for secondments that will allow water industry workers to broaden their skills.

The NSW Department of Planning and Environment recently released two key documents relating to the skills and training in the water sector:

The NSW Water Operations Workforce and Training Analysis
Promoting a national approach to water operations training materials, a discussion paper for a national approach to training materials

4. RTO Market Update

There are currently 2 RTOs delivering National Water Training Packages (NWP) who have SAS status in Queensland;

Simmons & Bristow
Water Training Australia

The above SAS status allow for employers and students to access the user choice subsidy scheme.

Outside of these arrangements there is the option for full priced or fee-for service packages. This would be by RTOs approved by the national VET regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA).

There has been ongoing discussion and engagement with Department of Employment, Small Business and Training (DESBT) regarding the status and assessment of the viability of the ‘thin’ market. DESBT has determined not to open a general application process for SAS status for 2022-2023. DESBT will continue to assess and manage requirements for additional suppliers and may invite registered training organisations to apply for SAS status if a need is identified.

For more information, please see link below to the DESBT website (with extracted paragraph below)

https://desbt.qld.gov.au/training/providers/sas/become

‘With a broad range of SAS available in Queensland to support skill needs across industries and taking into consideration the development of a VET strategy, the department has determined not to open a general application process in 2022–23. The department will continue to assess and manage requirements for additional suppliers and may invite registered training organisations to apply for SAS status if a need is identified.’

As such, qldwater attended a meeting with the DESBT Program Design Team to discuss the current situation facing the water sector following TAFE QLDs withdrawal from the market. DESBT completed an analysis of current capability and believes that while there is some evidence of increased demand, there appears to be no capacity constraints with both Simmonds & Bristow and Water Training Australia recruiting additional trainers and increasing their capacity to take on additional learners. The Department also needs to consider whether the thin market can sustain more providers, given the decision from TAFE QLD to withdraw from the market.

The Department will continue to monitor demand and capacity and is keen to be part of ongoing discussions to ensure training demands can be met. It is important to keep informed of barriers to training and that they be shared and collated. Any insights or information send to skills@qldwater.com.au or reach out to us to arrange a conversation.

It is also positive to note that the Cross-Government Water Working Group we’ve been advocating for has been established with the first meeting held on Monday, 31 October 2022. We look forward to being part of a collaborative approach to solve some of the longstanding issues facing our sector.

5. Water Industry Worker Secures QWRAP Funding

A QWRAP funding request to extend the Regional WIW Learning & Development Coordinator role over three years was approved on 20 September 2022.

The Project Steering Committee noted that the continuation of the Water Industry Worker Learning and Development coordination was essential for the success of the program and thanked the WIM Alliance, and especially Mackay Regional Council, for their willingness to continue hosting this cross-QWRAP program. Past successes of the program, evidenced through the acknowledgement and awards achieved thus far, show the high level of confidence and potential the Water Industry Worker program has to address water and wastewater workforce training pressures currently faced by the industry.

Due to the considerable investment and the long-term nature of the project, QWRAP also requested some additional documentation to be provided at relevant milestones:

A clear, concise description of the role of the Learning and Development Project Coordinator (to date and planned extensions) to be used for internal reporting and external advocacy of QWRAP to be provided at the project set-up meeting
At the end of the 2022-23 financial year (June 2023) in collaboration with the project management team, undertake an evaluation of the past and expected benefits of the project, including among other agreed priorities:
retention rates of previous participants
demonstrated alleviation of workforce pressures of participating councils
improved training pathways, both for accredited and non-accredited training
career pathways created through the project
increased career development opportunities and mobility of participants
insights to tailor the current program to meet small and remote council needs
potential for extension of the program into broader workforce planning activities

An initial project set-up meeting was held on Friday, 14 October between qldwater, the LGAQ and WIMWA to discuss and agree on the approach, methodology and timeframes that would be adopted for the project, as well as set up project review meetings and relevant communication strategies. Lee-Anne Willis will continue in the role and can be contacted on lee-anne.willis@mackay.qld.gov.au or 0457 215 599.

qldwater will continue to provide support to the program as required.

6. Training Package Cases For Change

The Water Industry Reference Committee has submitted the Case for Endorsement and draft Training Package materials for the Flood Site Operations and Water Network Maintenance projects to the Australian Industry and Skills Committee for their consideration.

Flood Site Operations

A new Unit of Competency and a Skill Set have been developed to address specific skills for undertaking flood management and the operation and maintenance of flood warning sites. The new unit will be an elective in the Certificate III in Water Industry Operations.

Water Network Maintenance

Three new Units of Competency and one updated existing unit address the skills and knowledge required to clean and maintain water assets, including use of new technologies to monitor and repair assets. Minor revisions have been made to three other units to incorporate current industry terminology and remove ambiguity. These units will be included in the Certificate II or Certificate III in Water Industry Operations.

7. Micro Credentials

From discussions with DESBT and the release of the Workforce Summit Report we feel confident that there will be an extension of the Micro-Credentialing Pilot Program to provide increased access to industry-supported short courses.

At a special Water Skills Partnership meeting held on 1 September 2022 we did a poll to gauge interest from participants with Water Treatment, Wastewater Treatment, Network Operations and Drinking Water Quality Management Planning for Operators making the shortlist. The DWQMP will most likely be delivered as a Fundamentals Webinar, presented by Viridis.

There was also some further interest in the SCADA course presented by Murray Thompson, as well as a more detailed, software specific SCADA course to be delivered by SkillsLab.

A recent email sent by David Scheltinga to SWIM / swimlocal users also attracted a lot of interest in a Data Analytics and Trends course to be delivered by Viridis. Viridis is also developing to deliver the Certificate II and Certificate III in Water Industry Operations from 2023.

Another topic that was popular amongst WSP members was soft skills around Leadership and Management and Cyber Security.

We will collate all the information and start to prepare a business case for any upcoming grant funding through the Australian Government DESE Program and DESBT.

8. Online Training Courses

The interstate additions of the Aqua Card NSW and Brown Card NSW and SA
help us offset the significant costs of hosting our LMS and provide opportunities for future content sharing. While some contextualisation has been required for these courses with different regulatory regimes, the fundamentals of maintaining safe drinking water and the environment while working on network assets are consistent.

On request from the NSW Water Directorate, we have commenced discussions with the LMS host, My Learning Space, to potentially upgrade to Moodle Workplace, which will allow multiple tenancies hosted under one banner. This will reduce administration tasks on qldwater and allow different states to manage their own enrolments and display their own branding. We will continue discussions and keep skills partners informed of any changes.

Work is progressing on the Green Card which will focus on environmental policies and legislation and another course looking at water sampling. The course is currently being tested and will be ready to launch soon, pending feedback from DES.

9. Careers Website

Since the launch of the dedicated careers website www.qldwatercareers.com.au to promote the variety of job opportunities and the value of a career in the water industry, qldwater has continued to engage with members to build the resources. Logan Water shared an excellent graphic that displays all the career options along the water journey from source to tap to wastewater treatment, and work is underway to use the graphic in an interactive way on the website.

A working group has been established to find ways to use the attraction hack, ‘Personas’ developed for the Water Skills Forum to assist our members in tailoring their approach to advertising positions in their teams.

We will continue adding more useful resources to the site over time along with a marketing plan to further promote the site to career advisors and other potential stakeholders.

10. Federal Budget Highlights

The Federal Budget promised some additional funding and programs relating to Skills & Training with the Government establishing a consultative independent body called Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA). JSA will work with states and territories, employers, unions, and training providers to undertake detailed labour market analysis and workforce planning to combat workforce shortages.

To ensure vocational education and training is supported over the long-term, the Government is negotiating a new long-term National Skills Agreement with states and territories. Commencing in 2024, the new agreement will ensure Australians benefit from a VET system that supports training providers to deliver quality courses, strengthens the skills pipeline in critical sectors and provides lifelong learning opportunities.

Also worth noting is the focus on Skilled Migration which could possibly help fill positions in the regions, with the Government announcing an expansion of the permanent Migration Program by 35,000 to 195,000. More than 90 per cent of new places will be for skilled migrants, and more than a quarter targeted to regional areas.

To address skills shortages more quickly, additional funding of $42.2 million will be provided to accelerate visa processing, reduce the visa backlog and raise awareness of opportunities for high-skilled migrants in Australia's permanent Migration Program.

Student and secondary training visa holders will have their work restrictions relaxed until 30 June 2023. Allowing them to work additional hours in any sector, helping to address workforce shortages.

11. Fundamental Webinars 10 November 2022

The final webinar for 2022 was held on 10 November, with Dominique Keirens from City of Gold Coast presenting on the Fundamentals of Inflow and Infiltration.

The qldwater website has been updated to display all the Fundamentals Webinars by topic to make it easier to select those relevant to certain job roles. Topics prioritised by WSP members for future webinars include Leak Detection, Metering Technologies, Regulations for operations staff, DMA Selection and implementation and more seasonal impact topics. We will continue to build an interesting line up of webinars for 2023.

If there are topics you would like us to organise as a Fundamentals Webinar, please email us on webinar@qldwater.com.au and keep an eye on our Upcoming Events page for details for 2023.

Upcoming Events

12. Upcoming Skills Partnership Group Meeting

The next Skills Partnership meeting date has been scheduled for 29^th November 2022 at 2:00pm and will be a Teams based meeting event. The focus of the meeting will be to hear Member’s experience of the current RTO and training situation, as a means of ground truthing for ongoing discussions with DESBT and the RTOs.

In other news, after 3 years as Chair of the Water Skills Partnership, Angela Robinson has indicated she will step down at the end of 2022. We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and sincerely thank Angela for the tremendous support and commitment she has shown to our group during her 3-year tenure; we are all extremely grateful for her significant contributions during that journey with us.

With that in mind, we would like Members to please consider taking up the Chair position in 2023 and for those willing, to put their name forward so a new Chair can be elected at the meeting.

Please email skills@qldwater.com.au to offer yourself as Chair.

Kind Regards,

qldwater

qldwater is a business unit of IPWEAQ

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