Huon Valley Works
Again from GeCo…
During the initial development of our unfunded TML project we conducted surveys and spoke to a lot of people about the social problems that exist in our community and how best to address them. Everything came back to a lack of training and employment opportunities.
This research showed that employers, both large and small, struggle to find suitable local workers, especially for seasonal and casual work.
Amongst the local small businesses there was a 14000 hour or 7FTE shortfall
The main reasons cited include the unreliable and inconsistent nature of the work and the low skill level and lack of work readiness in the labour pool. There is a clear gap between the employer and the employees. This problem exists not only in the Huon, but across the State.
In conversations with state growth it turned out that Allen Kenny had been looking at some way of addressing this issue for some time. After bringing Skills Tasmania into the conversation we managed to get some funding to do a feasibility and business plan for such a project.
That work has been completed so that now..
We believe a model can be built that begins to remove those barriers by focusing on a local level, and forming a ‘community based’ labour hire company. Huon Valley Works will be a not for profit, ethical, local labour hire company working within the Huon Valley local government area. Linking employers to job seekers it will be a social enterprise with the mission of growing local employment opportunities through a holistic approach to the unemployment problem.
By starting small we have an easily adaptable model with achievable goals. Cost effectiveness will be enhanced by using the labour hire margin to supplement available workforce development funding.
This approach will not only increase the local employment opportunities, it will increase local economic development, build social and community capital, and offer excellent social return on investment.
This ‘top down, bottom up’ approach will deliver real solutions for the local labour market.
The Hub will comprise four broad components:
1. Community Building. The Hub will be governed by the local community, including business representatives, job seekers and supporters of the project. Representatives from the key stakeholders will either be on the board or available in an advisory role. The Hub will be driven by people who live in the community - adapting quickly to the needs of Huon Valley employers and job seekers to help build the economic base of the region.
2. Skill development. Profits will be directed to training and workforce/skills development to meet the needs of the job seeker and the employer. Partnering with appropriate RTO’s and jobactive providers, resources can be pooled to achieve the best possible outcomes. Working with a broad range of organisations across sectors who are gathering, or have data, regarding skills needs will help HVW meet current and future needs and assist HVW in understanding, adopting and applying best practice methods.
3. Employment. The backbone of the Employment Hub is a not for profit ethical, local labour hire company that links job seekers with (initially) casual positions. Providing all the services of a regular labour hire company, supported by a nationwide Group Training Organisation (GTO) HVW will offer an industry competitive rate to employers.
By mapping the seasonal work opportunities and coordinating positions across a range of employers HVW can fill the gaps in the employee’s working week with the aim of offering full time employment.
4. Economic Development. The Hub will work with businesses in the region to assist with developing the workforce needed for businesses to grow.
The plan has been submitted to SkillsTasmania, been further refined and developed in consultation with them and has now passed through their system and is on the ministers desk for a funding request to run a pilot project based at GeCo.
If the funding application is successful and HVW itself proves to be successful then there could well be opportunities to roll out similar enterprises in other parts of the state…