Newsletter Post
The Western Parkland City is a growing centre for cutting-edge industries and advanced manufacturing, and the skills needed to fill the new jobs are changing. To ensure that the residents of the Western Parkland City have the skills and training they need to take advantage of these jobs while also giving businesses the confidence that an appropriately skilled workforce can be accessed here, a New Education and Training Model (NETM) has been developed.
The NETM will deliver small-scale packages of learning, or micro-credentials, that will allow people to build high-quality, accessible and fit-for-purpose knowledge, skills and experience in a particular subject area aligned to employer needs.
The NETM includes some key differentiating features to existing educational offerings. It:
For employers, this means access to an agile and highly skilled workforce that can meet the demands of their operations both now and in the future. For students and workers, it means access to lifelong learning and the potential for an exciting career that can evolve over time.
The Western Parkland City Authority (WPCA) has recently launched the first micro-credential on metal additive manufacturing in partnership with Western Sydney University and GE Additive. Another eight or so are in the pipeline and will be publicised as they come on line.
The process to identify training needs, develop appropriate short, targeted training courses (micro-credentials) of around 40 hours and confirm the educational provider partner is relatively straightforward. Industry proponents put forward their training needs to the Industry Reference Group, which contains representatives from private industry, government and industry associations (including the Western Parkland Councils). If considered a worthwhile proposal and one that is not replicating existing training, the proposal moves on to the Education and Training Providers Panel, a group of prequalified Registered Training Organisations and Higher Education Providers with the capacity and capability to deliver the training in collaboration with industry partners. The concept is then turned into a reality and another micro-credential is born!
As this program is currently fully funded, it offers an incredible opportunity for industry who want:
It is important to note that priority industries for the NETM are:
If you know of a business that you think could take advantage of the NETM, either to propose a training course that could help fill a skills gap or to have its employees access some of the micro-credentials, please do get in touch with our office and we’ll help you connect.
