Skills for Growth is a strategic workforce planning and development initiative offered by the Victorian Government that gives Victorian-based small and medium businesses the opportunity to access employee training resources and expert business management consultants. The program’s objective is to help the owners of small and medium businesses attain higher levels of success by identifying the key objectives and goals of their businesses and assessing and addressing skills shortages in thier workforce.
The Skills for Growth initiative will create a number of benefits – some of which are:
- Superior business performance and productivity
- Improved employee effectiveness and efficiency
- Greater capacity to innovate
- Broader range of employee skills
- Decreased costs
Ultimately, all of the benefits listed above are meant to show up on the business’ bottom line in the form of increased profits.
Skills for Growth Program Background
Because the Government of Victoria recognised the fact that small and medium businesses are the key driver of the state’s economy – they make up about ninety nine percent of all businesses and employ around one milliion people – they decided to create and fund – to the tine of $52 million – the Skills for Growth program in an effort to ensure their continued competitiveness and growth.
The Skills for Growth program was rolled out in April of 2009 with a panel of 25 different Service Providers – who were chosen after the conclusion of a lengthy evaluation process – that have been approved to provide – working in tandem with workforce planning and training Specialists – accredited training to businesses that sign up for the program.
Structure of the Skills for Growth Program
After a business registers with the Skills for Growth program (which can be done by visiting the website at www.business.vic.gov.au/skillsforgrowth) and selects a Service Provider that best suits its needs, the Service Provider assigns an independent workforce planning and training Specialist who contacts the business owner and arranges for an on-site visit.
Workforce planning and training Specialists must have successfully completed a Training and Assessment (TAA) training course and an accredited training course on Assess Informal Learning (AIL), a prerequisite for which is the successful completion of a number of key units from Certificate IV.
There are basically two phases to the Skills for Growth program.
Phase 1
In Phase One, a workforce planning and training Specialists meets with the business owner/manager and carries out a business analysis that results in the creation of a workforce development plan. The workforce development plan identifies, among other things, opportunities for upskilling and recommendations for training.
Following are the steps to the first phase of the Skills for Growth program:
- Completing a top-level analysis of the business that maps out its strategic direction
- Assessment of the skills and training needs of employees as they relate to the business’ strategic direction
- The development of a Workforce Training and Action Plan that details the business and employee capability needs and that also provides recommendations for relevant training courses and learning opportunities
The first phase of the Skills for Growth program is free for businesses to take part in.
Phase 2
The second phase of the Skills for Growth program proceeds only if business owners/managers choose to move forward with the training recommendations made by the workforce planning and training Specialist.
Basic overview of the key steps of the second phase:
- Facilitation of staff placement into training with an accredited training organisation
- Completion of a follow-up review after staff have completed training – or have undergone at least three months of training – and of a Skills for Growth report which must be reviewed and approved by the business (any employees hired by the business after the initial review receive individual training plans)
Although there are costs associated with the second phase of the Skills for Growth program, a business’ staff may be eligible for the Victorian Training Guarantee which can provide significant subsidies for Victorians who are placed into recognised vocational training courses. Some of the basic eligibility considerations are: age, residency status, educational background, and citizenship.
The Skills for Growth program typically takes four weeks to complete, with the follow-up review generally completed after six months.
Skills for Growth Program Eligibility
The program is open to all Victoria-based small and medium businesses. In addition, a business must:
- Employ between 1 to 200 staff
- Have been in operation for at least 12 months
- Be financially viable (effective trading history and ability to meet debts when they fall due)
Clearly, the standards are set to encourage as many Victorian businesses to participate in the program as possible.
Key Statistics on the Skills for Growth Program
The Skills for Growth program had reached the following milestones as of the end of January 2010:
- 1,648 businesses had signed up for Skills for Growth
- 667 workforce action plans had been signed off on by businesses
- 17.934 employee training plans had been signed off on by business owners/managers
- 10,488 approved training plans were eligible for the Victorian Training Guarantee
Those numbers show that the Skills for Growth program uptake has been strong. Businesses have also been getting strong results from teh Skills for Growth program, which you can read more about on Business Victoria’s website.
If you own or manage a Victoria-based business – and your business ticks the other “eligibility boxes” – you should really consider checking out the Skills for Growth program.