Job roles and industry practices have changed significantly in recent years. Industry can now access qualifications and skills standards that reflect these changes and incorporate the essential skills for managing biosecurity issues and threats, advancements in technologies, regulations and compliance.
The new and revised qualifications and skills standards are published on the training.gov.au website, within the national SFI Seafood Industry Training Package, making them available for use by registered training organisations for industry.
They were developed as part of three national projects, covering the full spread of the industry, over a period of 16 months. More information is available on the individual project pages.
- Aquaculture, Fishing Operations & Biosecurity Project
- Fisheries Compliance Project
- Seafood Post Harvest Project
The projects were driven by industry, with the Aquaculture and Wild Catch Industry Reference Committee overseeing the process to ensure consultation was wide-reaching.
Johnathon Davey, Chair of the Aquaculture and Wild Catch Industry Reference Committee said the feedback from industry is what drove the project to succeed.
“So many people volunteered their time to tell us about their skills needs, challenges, operating environments and requirements. All comments, input and feedback was welcomed, listened to and valued, and there was no shortage. Now industry can have confidence in their national qualifications and skills standards, that they are fit-for purpose and are benchmarked to their job roles,” said Mr Davey.
This has been the most significant review of the industry’s skills standards in almost a decade, said Michael Hartman, CEO of Skills Impact.
“Almost 200 industry members provided feedback and dedicated their time and expertise throughout this process and we thank them.”
Michelle Ingley-Smith, Skills Impact Industry Engagement Manager said “it is inspiring to work with an industry that is passionate about their future workforce skills. We were invited into many of their workplaces to see job roles in action through workforce functional analysis site visits”.
The new and revised qualifications and skills standards were endorsed by the Australian Industry and Skills Committee (AISC), at their meeting on 5 June 2019 (read more).