AISC Communique – 13 October 2020 Meeting

The 34th meeting of the Australian Industry and Skills Committee (AISC) was held on 13 October 2020.

The Chair noted that Mr Will Kestin’s appointment finishes in late October and took the opportunity to thank Will for his dedication to the work of this Committee and the valuable insights and perspective he has contributed to Committee decisions. The Chair confirmed a process is underway to seek a new member to represent Tasmania and details will be provided in due course.

The Chair also noted a process is underway to find a replacement ex‑officio representative for the Skills Senior Officials Network (SSON), as Dr Simon Booth’s term ends in early November. The Chair noted Dr Booth had already generously agreed to continue in the role for an extended period while a replacement was selected and thanked him for his thoughtful contributions and his continued commitment to the work of the Committee. Details of the new representative will be provided when finalised.

VET Reform Update and Discussion

Members received information on the Budget highlights that were specific to the skills and training sector, noting that investing in apprenticeships, creating jobs and boosting the skills of Australians to help them get back into work is at the heart of the Government’s Economic Recovery Plan for Australia.

Members discussed streamlining national training products, which is an immediate priority for Skills Ministers under the Heads of Agreement for Skills Reform.

For immediate action, the AISC confirmed it will work closely with Industry Reference Committees (IRCs) to identify zero-use training products for deletion from the national training register. Once deleted, these training products will still be accessible on training.gov.au as a reference point for industry; however, registered training organisations will be unable to enrol students in them.

The AISC will also work with IRCs as a priority to implement a new framework to assist the AISC to make decisions on which training products to prioritise for review and development. This new prioritisation framework establishes expected maximum timeframes for product development [6-8 months for urgent and straightforward product updates, 12 months for routine updates and 18 months for complex updates] and will apply to cases for change that come forward for AISC consideration from January 2021. It is intended to complement information already gathered by IRCs in their training product development work. The framework will support industry to bring the skills it needs to the market more quickly by categorising and prioritising training products for development based on usage, need and urgency.

National Careers Institute presentation

Ms Tiffany Blight, Executive Director, National Careers Institute (NCI) updated the Committee on the role, and recent milestones of the NCI that included:

• the rollout of the Your Career website (yourcareer.gov.au) to help people find quality career and study information
• establishing a grants program to help develop better career services for people at all stages of their career
• administering the Australian Training Awards that celebrate best practice in apprenticeships and VET sector
• implementing the Enhanced Support for School Leavers measure established on 1 October 2020 to provide career targeted information for school leavers.

Updating qualifications with new Health (HLT) and Business Services (BSB) units

Members agreed a list of qualifications approved to import recently updated units from the Business Services Training Package 7.0 and First Aid units from Health Release 4.2 to replace superseded units in the qualifications, where industry deems this appropriate, to minimise disruption to the system through major and minor releases.

Cases for Endorsement

Eleven Cases for Endorsement were approved by the Committee for referral to Ministers for endorsement:

IRC	Details of submission	AISC Decision
Agriculture and Production Horticulture IRC AHC Agriculture, Horticulture and Conservation and Land Management Training Package Release 6.0, Part 1: Agronomy, Sales and Merchandising	The Case for Endorsement includes: Agronomy 1 new qualification 2 new and 6 revised units of competency 1 new skill set Sales and Merchandising 1 revised qualification 11 revised units of competency	Approved the AHC Agriculture, Horticulture and Conservation and Land Management Training Package Release 6.0, Part 1: Agronomy and Sales and Merchandising
Agriculture and Production Horticulture IRC / Amenity Horticulture, Landscaping, Conservation and Land Management IRC AHC Agriculture, Horticulture and Conservation and Land Management Training Package Release 6.0, Part 2: Agricultural Biosecurity and Emergency Response, Conservation and Land Management, Medicinal Crops	The Case for Endorsement includes: Agricultural Biosecurity and Emergency Response 13 revised units of competency 3 new skill sets Conservation and Land Management 6 revised qualifications and 1 merged qualification 18 new and 68 revised units of competency 2 deleted units of competency and 1 reinstated unit 2 new skill sets Medicinal Crops 2 new qualifications 13 new units of competency 4 new skill sets	Conditionally approved the AHC Agriculture, Horticulture and Conservation and Land Management Training Package Release 6.0, Part 2: Agricultural Biosecurity and Emergency Response, Conservation and Land Management, Medicinal Crops on the basis that: 3 new medicinal crop units will be included as electives in the Certificate II in Production Horticulture qualification;. the Certificate II in Production Horticulture qualification will be submitted in the Part 3 project as a major release all project components (Parts 1, 2 and 3) will be uploaded on the national register as a single release (upon endorsement by Skills Ministers).
Public Safety IRC PUA Public Safety – Tree Safety	This Case for Endorsement includes: 3 new units of competency 1 new skill set 1 revised qualification	Approved the PUA Public Safety – Tree Safety Training Package
Public Safety IRC POL Police Training Package Release 4.0 – Crash Investigation and Analysis	This Case for Endorsement includes: 2 new qualifications 10 new units of competency	Approved the POL Police Training Package Release 4.0 – Crash Investigation and Analysis
Construction Plumbing and Services Building Information Modelling (BIM) Awareness Project	This Case for Endorsement includes: 3 new units of competency 1 new skill set	Approved the Construction Plumbing and Services, Building Information Modelling (BIM) Awareness Project
Construction Plumbing and Services IRC CPC Construction, Plumbing and Services – Building Surveying	This Case for Endorsement includes: 1 new and 16 revised units of competency 1 deleted qualification 1 new skill set	Approved the CPC Construction, Plumbing and Services, Building Surveying Training Package
Property Services IRC CPP Property Services – Surveying and Spatial Information Services Project	This Case for Endorsement includes: 6 updated qualifications and 57 updated units of competency 27 deleted units of competency 16 deleted skill sets	Approved the CPP Property Services – Surveying and Spatial Information Services Project
Process Manufacturing, Recreation Vehicle and Laboratory IRC PMB Plastics, Rubber and Cablemaking – Polymer Processing and Technology	This Case for Endorsement includes: 4 updated qualifications 126 revised units of competency 2 new units of competency 1 deleted qualification 52 deleted units of competency	Approved the PMB Plastics, Rubber and Cablemaking – Polymer Processing and Technology Training Package
Civil Infrastructure IRC RII Resources and Infrastructure – Civil Construction	This Case for Endorsement includes: 10 updated qualifications 8 new and 161 updated units of competency 8 new skill sets	Approved the RII Resources and Infrastructure – Civil Construction Training Package
Community Sector and Development IRC HLT Health – Indigenous Environmental Health Project	This Case for Endorsement includes: 1 updated qualification 9 updated units of competency 1 updated skill set	Approved the HLT Health Training Package – Indigenous Environmental Health Project
Ambulance and Paramedic IRC HLT Health – Ambulance and Paramedics qualifications	This Case for Endorsement includes: 7 updated qualifications 9 updated units of competency 1 new unit of competency	Approved the HLT Health – Ambulance and Paramedics Training Package

The Committee welcomed, Mr Larry Moore, Chair of the Electrotechnology Industry Reference Committee (IRC), who was invited to the meeting to discuss the work of the IRC in developing the recently finalised Electrotechnology Training Package Release 2.0 and three newly approved projects.

Industry Skills Forecasts

The AISC considered one new and one re-submission 2020 Industry Skills Forecast and Proposed Schedule of Work:

IRC	Details of submission	AISC Decision
Electrotechnology IRC UEE Electrotechnology (3 projects)	Maintenance of air handling equipment for fire and smoke control systems Develop 1 new unit and 1 new skill set for the maintenance of relevant essential services fire measures, including fire dampers, smoke and heat vents, and mechanical services air handlers. Installing, commissioning, servicing and maintaining variable refrigerant flow airconditioning systems Develop 1 new unit and 1 new skill set and update 1 existing qualification to standardise training for installing, commissioning, servicing and maintaining variable refrigerant flow air conditioning systems. Maintenance of emergency lighting and alarm systems Develop 1 new unit and 1 new skill set and update 1 existing qualification to support competencies required by electricians to maintain and report on emergency lighting and alarm systems in commercial buildings.	Approved to proceed to training package development.
Rail IRC TLI Transport and Logistics Rail – Rail Customer Service (1 project)	Rail Customer Service Review 2 qualifications, 1 skill set and 6 units of competency and develop 1 new unit to address changes in security requirements as well as rail traffic, ticketing and freight tracking technology.	Approved to proceed to training package development

Cases for Change

The Committee considered the following Cases for Change.

IRC	Details of submission: New	AISC Decision
Automotive Allied; Automotive Heavy Vehicle; Automotive Light Vehicle; Automotive Strategic; Automotive Vehicle Body Repair IRCs AUR Automotive Retail, Service and Repair Training Package.	This Case for Change proposes the: update of 4 existing units of competency creation of 2 new qualifications and 9 new units of competency	Approved to proceed to training package development.

The following Case for Change – Resubmission was considered by the Committee:

IRC	Details of submission	AISC Decision
Textiles, Clothing and Footwear IRC Clothing and footwear production and repair/Textile fabrication and production/ Applied fashion design and technology/merchandising	This Case for Change proposes: to review, re‑develop and rationalise 14 qualifications update 233 units of competency create 6 new skills sets	Approved to proceed to training package development.
Property Services IRC CPP Property Services – Strata Community Management	This Case for Change proposes to: delete 1 qualification update 1 qualification consult further with industry on the proposed deletion of CPP50316 Diploma in Strata Community Management	Approved to proceed to training package development, noting the AISC’s decision to require that the Diploma in Strata Community Management be deleted

IRC Working Group Update

IRC Chairs Day Update

At its strategic meeting on 8 September 2020, the Committee discussed and agreed an action plan to strategically engage and enhance support to the IRC network. The action plan will be supported by a communications plan to report progress in implementing priority outcomes from the IRC Chairs Day.

An overview of the projects in the action plan will be published to the AISC website, along with regular informative updates to notify stakeholders of the activities being undertaken.

IRC Self‑review process – recommended next steps

Members discussed the IRC self‑review process previously implemented in October 2019 as an opportunity for IRCs to reflect on their progress and review the operations, coverage and composition of their committee. This process was suspended in May 2020 due to the impact of the COVID‑19 pandemic on IRC operations.

Members agreed to the recommendations to continue the suspension of the IRC self-review process until March 2021 and to extend all IRC membership and Chair appointments until 30 June 2021, except for the specific ITAB rotating positions which will be rotated where the state/territory representative member has held the position longer than the agreed term.

2021 Meeting structure

The Committee agreed to a revised meeting schedule in 2021 to support strengthening its strategic focus and enhancing engagement with the IRC network through more regular consideration of training package products. The AISC will hold 8 meetings in 2021, and 2 IRC Chairs Days which will sit adjacent to a meeting day (dates to be confirmed).

Next meeting: The next AISC meeting will be held on Wednesday 2 December 2020.