It’s hard to believe that the economy is moving forward, albeit slowly, while the employment rate is increasing. Experts are talking up the GDP but at the same time are puzzled why there is weak job growth. The unemployment figures recently released show that 15,000 people lost their jobs in the last quarter, yet GDP was increasing nicely.
What’s the answer?
In simplistic terms, Australian companies are uncompetitive. Employers say that wages are too high so the only way to survive or be profitable is to become more automated or shed staff.
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What can we do as vulnerable employees?
We can change jobs into more secure career sectors, we can up skill by learning new skill sets, we can improve our current job performance or remain where we are and wait out an uncertain future. By improving our skill set we could not only survive in the current uncertain job market but also learn new skills that will create a recession-proof bubble around us.
Historically we have been trained at a university, a public vocational centre or a private registered training organization where we have been exposed to very specific course requirements that have provided a set of very specific skills to perform one job.
As the unemployment market changes so should the courses that prospective students enroll in to ultimately gain a job. To meet this end training colleges will be required to offer a more general education that covers more job-related skills in order to make prospective employees more employable at the same time improving job retention when unemployment rates do begin to soar.
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While there will always be a need for single qualifications with specific skill sets, the future of vocational education is in Dual Qualifications where students can complete two qualifications in the time it takes to complete one at a realistic course fee. This method of course delivery will give students a vast selection of competencies across a number of vocational areas without affecting the quality of the educational experience.
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The industry will begin to demand that employees possess a variety of skill sets rather than have them complete a full qualification.
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Explore the options yourself before it’s too late.
