You are cordially invited to get involved

The industry lobbied hard to have its own dedicated training qualifications advisory body rather than being directly overseen by Manufacturing Skills Australia (MSA). People argued, successfully, that the automotive sector demands highly specialised skills, and so Auto Skills Australia was created late last year as a subsidiary of MSA, and is dedicated to establishing relevant, up-to-date vocational training qualifications for the industry.
Geoff Gwylim, a former body maker, has spent the last five years as CEO of the Transport and Logistics Industry Skills Council. He has been sitting in the CEO’s seat of Auto Skills Australia (ASA) since 11 April.
“The ASA understands that one of its most important roles is engaging with the industry at all levels, as well as its ability to support employers and registered training organisations (RTOs) in skills development initiatives. It’s not enough to build qualifications to sit on national systems. Qualifications must be applied and implemented in industry for them to have real value.
 
Get involved
“To this end, we will soon be asking for nominations to form specific stakeholder committees to ensure the ideal training structures are developed to meet industry needs and are industry led. A critical part of the advisory structure will be dedicated to the autobody industry, and made up of predominantly industry personnel. If you feel you could make a valuable contribution, you will be able to volunteer on our website: www.autoskillsaustralia.com.au.

Our Vision
“Our vision for this organisation is quite simply to establish the best vocational training standards for industry. We will ensure the training is high quality and attracts people into the industry. We will measure our success on industry feedback.

Review and improve
“We have been asking fundamental questions about the existing qualifications such as: do they reflect actual job roles found in the industry? Do they allow for new and emerging technologies? Is the assessment criteria robust enough to guarantee high-level outputs irrespective of the RTO?
“Gone is the three-year review cycle of qualifications review – often technology moves much more quickly than that, so we will introduce a continuous improvement process to keep qualifications current and reflective on industry technology. We will be working with the industry to prioritise the qualifications that need updating most immediately, and work will begin on them this year.
 
Balanced training
“Training programs have been criticised in the past for containing too much ‘old stuff’, however many stakeholders also argue that the basics of the trade need to remain in qualifications content. It’s essential that apprentices learn the basic underpinning skills and knowledge before they can advance and develop high-level technical skills. We will ensure balanced qualifications that are relevant to employers, as they will offer elective units. This will allow trainees to have a more flexible career path and be able to move across the industry once they have finished their training.

Black and white, not grey
“What I am most passionate about is that when we review qualifications, we build back in clear advice on assessment criteria and the conditions in which the assessments are undertaken. We will ensure units of competency that are firm building blocks, and these are black and white – not grey. Recent changes in training package policy means we can write assessment criteria and be utterly specific, including where and when the assessment should be carried out. Currently, the criteria is difficult to understand.

Open feedback channels
Feedback on what we have proposed and on the formation of the ASA has been overwhelmingly positive. This is your industry body. We want your support, and if you don’t agree with us then let us know. We are launching a new website in July where there will be plenty of easy ways to give feedback on what we are doing.” Feedback can also be provided by the interim ASA website at www.autoskillsaustralia.com.au