Minimum and preferred entry qualifications for North Australian workers
2006
This paper reports on the outcomes of a replication study of a
survey of British employers that requested information on the
qualifications sought when recruiting employees and on subsequent
training and development. While the British survey was
interested in the uptake and use of the British National Vocational
Qualifications, the study reported in this article is
primarily focused on the uptake and use of the Australian
Qualifications Framework qualifications by North Australian
employers. This study was prompted by the skills shortages
and recruitment difficulties being experienced by organizations
throughout rural and regional Australia. Previous studies have
found that vocational qualifications were not valued by UK
employers and few employers were encouraging employees
to undertake vocational awards. If this is also the case in
Australia, it may in part explain problems in recruiting skilled
workers. This research clearly demonstrates that employees
in regional and rural Australia are seeking to improve their
knowledge and skills through vocational training and higher
education qualifications. Also, employers are providing access
to training and are supporting managerial and professional
employees to gain higher educational qualifications. When
recruiting all types of worker other than unskilled labourers,
the majority of organizations prefer to recruit workers with
qualifications. In rural and regional centres, however, a more pragmatic stance of recruiting unqualified employees in some
areas is observed. Clearly, employers will attempt to minimize
training costs by recruiting skilled employees, but in the end
they will have to provide access to training and education to
ensure that they have a skilled workforce that can deliver
essential services and products.
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