Jeremy Rockliff,Minister for Education and Training
The Tasmanian Liberal Government has a clear plan to secure Tasmania's future, including backing jobs in the state's building and construction industry through a new industry workforce action plan released today.
Skills Tasmania and Keystone Tasmania (formerly the Tasmanian Building and Construction Industry Training Board) in consultation with industry have laid out the Building and Construction Workforce Action Plan focussed on five key areas:
- Attracting new people to the sector;
- Mentoring for success and retention;
- Growing and sustaining diversity;
- Building business resilience and productivity; and
- Sector-based strategic planning.
Importantly, a number of the specific initiatives listed in the plan are already in development or underway.
Our $5 billion infrastructure investment program, the largest in Tasmania's history, will need a strong and consistent pipeline of skilled and trained workers to support the 25 000 jobs it will support over the next four years.
That's why skills and training is at the core of our plan, including through the $20.5 million package to get Tasmanian workers into jobs which includes;
- $2M JobReady Fund to help job seekers gain the essential tools they need to get a job
- $3.2M boost to the Area Connect Service to get more people to work, training and education where no easy transport options exist in 16 Local Government Areas
- $400,000 for a Workers Connect Portal to provide information on local jobs, programs and support services
- $2.4M to expand our successful Job Matching Service to place more job seekers with local employer vacancies
- New Tasmanian Employer Bonus, incentivising employers to take on a long-term, unemployed job seeker, with a $6,500 incentive
- $3M to fund an additional 600 places in Certificate III in Individual Support for staff to work in the aged care and disability support sectors
Importantly, we'll also invest in TasTAFE's evolution, to match the needs of Tasmanian business and help more Tasmanians get the skills and training they need.
The Tasmanian Building and Construction Industry Workforce Action Plan will be critical in ensuring that we make the most of our significant infrastructure investment, while backing and supporting Tasmanian jobs.
The Action Plan is now available on the Skills Tasmania website.
