Skills Council needs help in navigating training pathway

by David Palmer

Many largely illiterate plant operators have managed to gain their certificates one and two and then their WorkCover tickets.

But because they have then been able to earn around $30 an hour as plant operators, they have not been motivated to go for certificate three or higher qualifications.

That has made it difficult to sell the higher qualifications said a participant in a Resources and Infrastructure Industry Skills Council (RIISC) workshop in Sydney in late September.

The workshop, one of eight held in each state and territory capital involving construction industry people, was aimed at developing a training pathway for those in the construction industry.

While it was clear that university trained engineers had the technical skills to take on management of projects, newly graduated they usually lacked the practical skills to be successful project managers.

So they really needed to start at or near the bottom of the skills ladder, like everyone else on a construction site.

Indeed, according to an engineer in the workshop, the only thing that a project manager who had come up through the ranks could not do that an engineer could, was sign off on a project.

“What's it matter if there is a boundary between an engineer with a degree and someone who has come up through the ranks to be a project manager? If I started as a labourer and ended up after 45 years as a project manager on $150,000 a year, I'd reckon I'd done pretty well,” he said.

Another commented that practically trained engineers, do not have a problem with the skills of labourers coming up through the ranks.

According to RIISC consultant Robin Bishop, the construction industry skills pathway starts with a labourer at level one and then goes up through six other levels. She listed them as skilled labourer, trade skilled labourer or leading hand, foreman, works coordinator or superintendent and/or holder of a diploma, project manager and/or holder of an advanced diploma and a university trained engineer.

She said the dilemma was, how could university trained project managers be compared with project managers, who had sometimes not completed formal studies beyond certificate 3? “We need a qualification at level seven that everyone recognises. There must be units of competency that align all jobs,” she said.

Bishop who is doing a scoping study for RIISC as a start to developing a career path outside a university degree, said there was a “dog's breakfast” of job titles in the industry.

“They vary hugely between states and between organisations and you can't take any of them for granted. So that makes it difficult to differentiate between them and determine the skills needed for each role.”

Bishop indicated she had accumulated a paper pile about 25cm thick, in an effort to define job descriptions.

Where possible, the new national training package will use existing units of competency. But it will have to take account too of state and territory differences in legal requirements.

Again it is a mess, Bishop said. Even finding out which government departments have a stake in things like OH&S, the environment and people management, and the law relating to things like human resources, industrial relations, equal opportunity and anti discrimination is a challenge.

A workshop participant commented that because there was no well-defined pathway up through the construction industry, parents turned their children away from entering the industry because they did not see it as a trade. “Until we get something we can market and market it for a few years, we won't be able to change parents' thinking. And if we don't do that, the construction industry will die,” he said.

RIISC is keen that the training pathway reflects the needs of the industry. So it is welcoming further industry input on occupations, positions and functions within those positions and identification of any gaps in training.

Further information: Dorothy Rao, RIISC, 02 9299 3014, fax: 02 9299 3015, 0404 205 908, drao@riisc.com.au, www.riisc.com.au