Queensland Reports - November 2010

CCF suggests change to the 10% training policy
CCF Queensland would like to see fundamental changes to the mandated 10% training policy.  In a recent submission in response to a discussion paper on the 10% Training Policy, the Queensland Branch put forward eight recommendations for change to policy.

In forming this submission, the CCF sought feedback from its members and held discussions with the Department of Transport and Main Roads, Construction Skills Queensland and the Department of Education and Training.

To provide a brief background on the 10% training policy and objectives, the State Government Building and Construction Contracts – Structured Training Policy (10% Training Policy) is primarily an employment policy. Its key objective and its subsequent design is to encourage expanded on the job training opportunities by increasing the number of apprentices and trainees employed in the building and construction industry. 

The CCF supports the need for a training policy and 20% indigenous training policy to encourage expanded on the job training opportunities in the building and construction industry. The CCF has been directly involved in the implementation of the policy through our representation on the 10 and 20% Policy Steering Committee.

While the policy has served its purpose by aiding change to the industry’s training culture, we believe that it is time for the policy to adapt to a changing employment environment. With this in mind the CCF made eight change recommendations that:

• The policy should be renamed the ‘Industry Capability and Capacity Policy’;
• The 10% Training Policy changes from a project based compliance regime to an enterprise based regime;
• Training should be part of the weighted non-price criteria in tenders for government projects;
• Training should be connected to national harmonisation of pre-qualification;
• The definition of training should be broadened to include all aspects of civil construction, not just those required to ‘do the job’;
• The new training policy should require a focus on outcomes as well as inputs, i.e. hours of training;
• Measurements of the current policy should be changed to the following:
• Threshold for projects increased to $2.5m;
• Increase in percentage of up-skilling to 40% and
• Labour cost should be increased from $35 to $45 per hour; and
• Construction Skills Queensland should continue to play a major role in controlling compliance for the new policy.

The CCF believes that the policy should help to encourage the retention and up-skilling of staff, rather than the dismissal of staff and employment of new staff for mere compliance purposes. The solution to this training dilemma for companies, lies partly in the policy becoming flexible enough, to recognise those construction companies that do put a large effort into training their workforce outside of compliance needs for major government projects.

It is important that civil construction companies have an ongoing enterprise based training plan and the CCF believes that companies that do should be rewarded. Therefore we consider that there needs to be a fundamental change in the direction of the policy from a project based compliance regime to an enterprise or ‘fourth tick’ based regime.

Whilst it is acknowledged that instigating fundamental change to the 10% policy will be difficult, the minimum that we should settle for is a relook at the intent of the policy and its applicability in today’s environment and to change the policy so that it is focussed on outcomes.

Study tour benefits
A recent study tour by branch president Gavin Turner and I, that criss-crossed the US and Europe, will produce some great benefits for the long term planning of CCF Queensland.

The aim was to look at large scale training facilities and also the use of simulators in civil construction training. Some of the important elements of the tour took us to school to work programs in Albany and onsite training facilities in London, as well as simulator training facilities in rural Sweden.

During the tour we also had the opportunity to enter into policy discussions with peak industry groups such as CECA in England and AGC in the USA about the environment, skills development, workforce sustainability and procurement policy. The study tour will enhance our advocacy skills and also contribute towards planning for our Skills Centre and Mobile Training Unit proposal.

Queensland Media Club sponsorship yielding results
The Queensland branch sponsorship of the Queensland Media Club is yielding great results in gaining access to the state’s decision makers. A recent lunch where the Prime Minister Julia Gillard was keynote speaker, saw two CCF representatives seated at the main table with the guest of honour. This was in addition to attracting two state ministers and two mayors of major cities to our table.

Developing relationships means a lot in political advocacy. The sponsorship for this networking group allowed our branch to discuss directly with the Prime Minister, state ministers and mayors, the benefits of our proposed Skills Centre and Mobile Training Units to the training environment in Queensland.