Skills eFlash #137

Skills eFlash #137 New

Date: 09-Jul-2025

In this edition: Water Skills Partnership Meeting | qldwater Annual Forum | Industry Skills and Jobs Advisor | Webinar Recordings and more!

Water Skills Partnership Meeting

Join us for the next Water Skills Partnership meeting on Thursday 17 July from 9-11am where we’ll be gathering input to shape upcoming webinars and Micro-Credential offerings. We’re also excited to welcome guest speaker Steven Nash, Senior Water Engineer at CAF Consulting, who will present on a potential trial of their Encapsulation Pipe Reline system. This innovative process involves pipe reaming of AC pipelines using encapsulAC™, which safely captures pipe fragments and surrounding soil in a coagulated mass outside a newly installed Polyethylene water pipeline.

We look forward to seeing you there!

ISJA Update

The Queensland Urban Water Industry Reference Group (QWIRG) is due to meet again this month for their quarterly meeting. The Group are focussing on four key areas:

Increase cross-sector collaboration

Enable the workforce to grow through skilling
Increase attraction
Retention strategies for a positive workforce

The Industry Skills and Jobs Advisor – Cass Cowley – has been meeting this month with a range of employers from across the wider sector including Councils, major utilities, Water Boards and accommodation providers to listen to experiences of recruitment and attraction, training, what drives their business and work, how job roles might change in future and how connected employers are to each other across Queensland.

Want to be part of these conversations, have your voice heard or have questions about the project? Contact Cass at ccowley@qldwater.com.au or 0437 495 085.

qldwater Annual Forum 2025

Registrations are now open for the qldwater 2025 Annual Forum: Courage and Compassion for a Resilient Urban Water Sector, held on 20–21 August at the IPWEA-QNT Training Rooms, Eagle Farm, Brisbane.

This year’s forum will explore the sector’s most pressing risks—from skills shortages and climate volatility to emerging contaminants and regulatory pressures. Through engaging presentations and collaborative sessions, we’ll tackle how to drive scalable change and build resilience across Queensland’s urban water services.

Highlights include:

Site tours
Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test
Award Dinner
A full day of strategic presentations and discussions

This is qldwater’s signature event for water service providers—an opportunity to connect, learn, and lead the way forward.

More information and register here.

HPWJ Training

qldwater is continuing its commitment to workforce safety and compliance by supporting regional councils in delivering nationally accredited High Pressure Water Jetting (HPWJ) training. This initiative is particularly vital for teams working with high-risk infrastructure such as asbestos cement (AC) pipes.

The recent High Pressure Water Jetting course delivered in Toowoomba was a fantastic success, marked by strong engagement from both network operators and supervisors. The region demonstrated a clear understanding of the seriousness of working around asbestos, with high levels of enthusiasm shown across all levels of staff. Notably, the majority had already completed the Grey Card (Asbestos Awareness) training, which positioned them well to fully grasp the Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS) and PPE requirements specific to asbestos cement (AC) mains. Read more about the training in our latest newsletter.

More training opportunities are scheduled in the Gympie and Isaac regions over the coming months. Please contact Sarah if you are interested in undertaking this highly valuable training.

Essentials Webinars

Recordings of our latest webinars are available on our website. These include:

Self Awareness for Stress Management and Personal Resilience

In this engaging and insightful webinar, leadership coach and water industry veteran Belinda Chapman explores the transformative power of self-awareness in managing stress and building personal resilience. Tailored for professionals in the water sector, the session offers practical tools and reflection techniques to help participants identify emotional triggers, enhance emotional clarity, and navigate daily pressures with confidence.

Cyber Security for Water Businesses

In this webinar, Sean Murdoch from Secolve explores the critical importance of operational technology (OT) cybersecurity for water businesses. With increasing digitisation of water infrastructure, Sean outlines common threats, sector-specific risks, and the implications of the Security of Critical Infrastructure (SOCI) Act. Drawing on decades of experience, he highlights real-world incidents, including insider threats and state-sponsored cyberattacks, and offers practical strategies for building OT cyber resilience. Emphasising the need for awareness, risk management, and secure system design, the session provides valuable insights for utilities of all sizes navigating the evolving cybersecurity landscape.

Workforce Skills Snapshot Report

Work is progressing well on the latest Skills Snapshot Report, which will be released at the end of the month.

The report reveals notable differences between operator skillsets in SEQ utilities and those in regional organisations. In particular, SEQ utilities tend to have more specialised teams focused solely on either wastewater or drinking water, while regional organisations are more likely to employ multi-skilled operators due to broader service delivery demands.

Additionally, the data highlights a trend regarding gender participation: operator roles are not being viewed as a viable or attractive employment option for women. Instead, there appears to be a shift toward science-based professional and paraprofessional roles, suggesting the need to better understand the barriers to gender diversity in operational pathways. More to come.