BSL is a social justice organisation working towards an Australia free of poverty.
Our purpose is to advance a fair Australia through our leadership on policy reform, our partnerships with communities and the quality of our services. Our approach is informed directly by people experiencing disadvantage and uses evidence drawn from our research, together with insights from our programs and services, to develop practical solutions that work.
BSL welcomes the clarity provided in the NST update: building a system that puts people and skills first paper and the opportunity for the National Skills Taxonomy to provide a common language to describe the skills individuals learn and develop through different education and employment environments. Our response to the paper considers the impact a skills-first approach will have on people who have traditionally been underrepresented in education and work, and experience structural barriers to engagement. This submission includes recommendations in response to questions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 in the discussion paper.
Recommendations
- JSA should adopt an equity-led validation mechanism that balances insights from market data with qualitative insights from sectors that are underrepresented by market data.
- JSA should establish formal expert panels that include representatives of feminised occupations and industry sectors with large volumes of non-credentialled workers – including in the care and community sectors – to complement and review market-based data informing the skills classifications within the NST.
- JSA should engage with career education stakeholders, including peak bodies such as the Career Industry Council of Australia and the Australian Centre for Career Education, to identify examples of best practice for equipping learners with transferable skills, career management skills, and capabilities for skills recognition and articulation at all career stages.
- JSA should consult with underrepresented groups – such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and people with disability – to involve them in designing and testing the NST, to ensure it is accessible and achieves its goals.
- JSA should map the supports needed to develop skills into the taxonomy.
- JSA should develop, as part of the implementation of the NST, culturally sensitive and disability inclusive tools for employers to support their skills identification. These tools should aim to build employer capability for recognising the skills of diverse communities including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, culturally and linguistically diverse people, and people with disability.
- To support the design of a new system, JSA should establish formal and ongoing lived experience consultation mechanisms with people who have experience of seeking credit transfer and recognition of prior learning.
- JSA should include a differentiated English language proficiency competency pathway within the NST.