VICTORIAN FREIGHT AND LOGISTICS COUNCIL
30 March 2011
Subject: Submission responding to report:
A shared responsibility - Apprenticeships for the 21st Century. Final Report
of the Expert Panel
Att: DEEWR
Please find the following comments in relation to the abovementioned report.
The Victorian Transport and Logistics Workforce Advisory Group formed in 2009 as an initiative of the Australian Transport Council, recognising the criticality of a skilled workforce to optimise investment in transport infrastructure.
The key objectives of the Victorian T&L Workforce Advisory Group T&L WAG are to:
1. improve access to appropriate transport and logistics industry education, training and employment;
2. improve workforce planning, recruitment and retention practices, including workplace arrangements and environment and input to national issues where appropriate (e.g. skilled migration, tertiary education and training); and
3. provide advice on streamlining transport and logistics industry regulatory impediments;
The industry is on a growth trajectory and the task is growing in size and complexity. There are a number of occupations in the industry experiencing shortages of workers including –
General transport -
Truck Driver (General Freight, B-Double Driver, Multi - Combination)
• Delivery Driver
• Dangerous Goods Tanker Driver
• Transport Manager / Logistics Manager
• Forklift Operator
• Warehouse Administrator
• Workplace Trainer and Assessor
Maritime –
Deck Hand, General Purpose Hand, Seafarer
Integrated Rating
• Marine Engineer
• Ships Captain / Ships Master
• Marine Pilot / Ship’s Pilot / Sea Pilot
• Ship’s Officer / Deck Officer / Ship’s Navigating Officer
• Warehouse Administrator
• Workplace Trainer and Assessor
Ports -
Stevedore / Crane Driver / Forklift Operator /Gantry Crane Operator
• Harbour Master Assistant / Deputy Harbour Master
• Marine Pilot / Ship’s Pilot / Sea Pilot
• Tug Master
• Port Engineer
Rail -
Locomotive Driver / Train Driver
• Railway Track Worker
• Signal Technicians
• Train Controller
• Rail Engineer / Signalling Engineer
• Railway Track Plant Driver / Plant Operator
• Possession Planners/Project Managers
• Railway Shunter / Yard Assistant / Train inspector
Aviation -
Aero plane Pilot
• Air Traffic Controller
• Aircraft Baggage Handler and Airline Ground Crew
• Flying Instructor (Aeroplane and Helicopter)[1]
The report makes a number of recommendations that will have serious negative implications for both the Transport and Logistics (T&L) industry and for the Australian economy as a whole.
In particular, the Victorian Transport & Logistics Workforce Advisory Group has strong concerns regarding the proposed process to determine how ‘eligible apprenticeships and traineeships’ would be identified.
The Specialised Occupations List (SOL) and the National Skills Needs List (NSNL), in particular, are not comprehensive benchmarks for determining ‘priority occupations and transferability’ in relation to the growth industry of transport and logistics in Australia.
This belief is supported by the Expert Panel itself which states ‘We acknowledge that these lists were not created for the purpose of supporting the targeting of Australian Government investment into apprenticeships and traineeships’.
The report goes on to state ‘…It would therefore be for the taskforce and then the National Custodian to develop and identify a better mechanism. It will require high quality and ongoing labour market research and analysis to support the targeting mechanism. Skills Australia could also have a role in validation of the mechanism.’
We would like to express our concerns regarding the accuracy, completeness and currency of figures emanating from the National Centre for Vocational and Education Research (NCVER) whose data is also quoted (at length) in the report.
Numerous reports (Commonwealth, State, Industry Skills Council, State ITABs, other research) identify skills shortages in the T&L industry, however no T&L qualification or occupation is listed on the SOL or NSNL lists.
The recently released (TLISC) 2010 Environmental Scan has once again identified skill shortage areas in the T&L industry. Many of these critical shortages are in occupations that have been repeatedly identified for some years now, but they would be denied access to training support under the recommendations of this report.
1. Critical skills shortages in the Transport and Logistics industry
The Australian Transport and Logistics industry is facing a critical skilled workforce shortage, across all sectors, over the coming 5 to 20 years. In many areas those shortages are already upon us. Strategies are being developed and implemented to attempt to mitigate these workforce shortages but current outcomes see the shortages increasing rather than decreasing in spite of these efforts.
Assuming a (conservative) workforce growth of 2% per annum in the sector over the next 5 years and taking into account:
· the propensity for older workers to continue to leave the industry
· the strong recovery from the GFC evident in trade statistics
· the ‘leakage’ of skilled personnel to other industries such as construction and resources / mining in increasing numbers
and setting aside the supply chain management professionals and those who work in goods movement (e.g. drivers and logisticians) branded under other industries (i.e. mining and resources), this indicates a demand for 23,000 additional workers over the next five years – in Victoria alone.
This does not include the projected increases in ‘human’ freight task movements. As our population in Victoria continues to grow[2] there will be increasing demands for a workforce capable of meeting the needs of expanding rail, tram, bus and aviation services.
The Transport, Postal and Warehousing industry is the ninth largest employing industry in Australia, directly employing over half a million workers 597,200 (or 5.5 per cent of the total workforce) as at February 2009.
It should be noted that these figures do not include Supply Chain Management, Logistics Planning, Freight Forwarding, Procurement, Supply Chain Visibility, etc.
These figures do not include workers who may be undertaking transport work but who are not directly employed by a transport organisation, i.e. drivers working in the mining, agriculture, food processing industries, etc. It is estimated that an additional 700,000 workers are indirectly engaged in transport activities.[3] Of this total figure, approximately 330,000 were employed in Victoria.[4]
2. Future projections
Australia’s freight task in 2020 will be double that of 2006. By 2050, it will be tripled.[5]
The Transport and Logistics Industry will require significant levels of new and retrained staff to cope with the expected growth in freight movements over the coming decades. This, in turn, will have an impact on the movement of general labour across industries that require similarly skilled workers.
3. Actual Employment Growth
Over the last decade, employment in the Transport, Postal and Warehousing industry has shown strong long term growth. In the 10 years to February 2009, employment in the industry rose by 141 000 (or 30.9 per cent) to 597,200. This represents an average annual growth rate of 2.7 per cent.
4. Heavy vehicle drivers as an example
The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations 2008 Job Outlook[6] found there were nearly 180,000 truck drivers in Australia in 2007-08, with around 41,600 in Victoria. Nearly half these drivers will be 65 years of age or older by 2026.
The older driver age profile means the estimated departures are higher than those from the general workforce.
While industry and government are looking to address efficiency and seek productivity gains in terms of the tonne/km of freight delivered per driver, it is likely that nearly double the current number of drivers would be required to complete the projected 2026 freight task[7].
To put this in perspective, meeting the 2026 freight task and replacing retiring drivers requires around 60,000 new drivers in Victoria and perhaps 270,000 new drivers nationally.
Given that the economy depends on the efficient movement of freight, the lack of skilled drivers also potentially affects the provision of services in the wholesale, retail, agricultural, mining and manufacturing industries, and the public transport and rail freight sectors will also have competing demands for train, tram and bus drivers.
Recruitment strategies such as ‘importing’ labour from other states won’t solve long term driver shortages. Instead, a focus on longer term strategic action, supported by industry led recruitment and training activity, is required.
Government must shoulder its share of the training burden required to encourage and maintain this critical industry.
5. Impact on industry should Commonwealth support be withdrawn
· Not only will the criteria imposed have significant funding implications for our industry sector, but there is also real concern that T&L jobs and skills are once again considered at a lower status than other skilled jobs and occupations in the Australian workforce.
· We challenge the assertion that the investment in our industry is “not providing any tangible benefit to the broader economy” (p. 58).
· The regional dispersal of T&L employment should not be undervalued. The T&L industry would argue that T&L has a higher penetration of business into regional areas than some of the defined higher priority trade areas.
· T&L employs significant numbers of people - both directly and indirectly – and, as an industry, is already facing critical workforce issues (shortages) in some areas / sectors.
· COAG will not meet its education targets nor will the participation rates recommended by Skills Australia be achieved if it does not engage our industry.
6. Conclusion
The T&L industry needs to be actively encouraged to increase the acceptance and uptake of accredited skills training, utilising the national training packages currently available.
Limiting Government support for accredited training in the T&L industry will only reinforce the (incorrect ) image/stereotype of a low-skilled, uneducated, blue-collar industry (with the perceived attendant poor career opportunities). This will occur at a time when skills shortages in the industry must be addressed for the broader good of the Australian economy.
If the Government is looking to make adjustments to the current system, a credible mechanism for defining skills shortages should be developed and validated before wholesale (disruptive) changes are made to the current system.
Yours sincerely
John Begley
Chairman, Victorian Freight and Logistics Council
Nola Bransgrove
Chair, Victorian T&LWAG
c.c. Hon Terry Mulder MP, Minister for Transport,
Minister for Roads
Hon Richard Dalla-Riva MLC, Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations,
Minister for Manufacturing Exports and Trade
Hon Peter Hall MLC, Minister for Higher Education
Minister Responsible for the Teaching Profession
[1] TLISC 2011 T&L Skilling Summit
[2] ABS Population growth in regional Australia, Report 3218, April 2011
[3] Apelbaum 2008.
[4] DIIRD 2007
[5] Meeting the 2050 Freight Challenge. Infrastructure Partnerships Australia. June 2009.
[6] DEEWR 2008 Job Outlook at - http://joboutlook.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx
[7] Dept of Transport Victoria ‘A Workforce Strategy for Road Freight Drivers’ May 2010