Industry skills councils

Background

The development of flexible national training packages that incorporate employability skills and cross-industry skill sets is integral to meeting the current and prospective skills development needs of industry and business.

The 11 industry skills councils are independent, not-for-profit companies having boards drawn from industry. They were first established in 2004. They receive funding to perform their role in the national training system through a funding agreement with the Australian Government. The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations has overall management of the councils.

What are the roles and priorities of industry skills councils?

The Australian Government currently funds industry skills councils to develop and maintain training packages in line with research and market intelligence on current and emerging industry skill needs.

The key role of the industry skills councils is to understand their industries well and develop high levels of market intelligence in order to develop training products which are useful and respond to contemporary needs. Councils have primary responsibility for developing and maintaining training packages.

The Australian Government has committed, through the Skilling Australia for the Future policy, to strengthening industry skills councils—by expanding their roles and doubling their current funding allocations.

Under the new policy, in addition to their current roles of developing and maintaining training packages in line with research and market intelligence, industry skills councils will have some responsibility for:

  • diagnosing the training needs of employers and allocating training places
  • identifying suitable training providers
  • working with employment service providers to provide training to re-entrants.

Industry skills councils will also offer independent advice about what skills a business may require, now and into the future, and match any identified training needs in individual businesses with appropriate training solutions.

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