SSV Newsletter: Issue 14

Staff Changes

Ellen Frew completed her traineeship with us in April and taking over is Hayley Page. Hayley completed her Advanced Diploma of Tourism Management at William Angliss in 2008 and looks towards furthering her business studies to get into a personal assistant/PR role.

Hayley has already impressed with her event management skills in assisting SSV staff in managing the SSV Working with Workforce Development Forum held in late April.

SSV wishes Ellen all the best in her next adventure wish we understand will involve a few months travelling.

SSV also says 'happy travelling' to Brooke Attrill who leaves us early June to travel. Brooke started with ATAP (formerly Better Business Tourism Accreditation Program) as a work placement student in 2007, which led to her position of Accreditation Assistant, working 3 days a week. Brooke has proven to be a valuable asset to SSV in her time with us, and we know that the opportunities for Brooke will be endless. Best of luck Brooke!

SSV also welcomes new members to our industry advisory committees. Joining the Tourism and Hospitality IAC this year is Liann Filer from the Australian Culinary Federation and Peter Corish representing the Victorian Caravan Parks Association.

The Wholesale, Retail and Personal Services IAC committee welcomed Leanne Morison of Yum! Restaurants International and Natalie Hall of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.

Service Skills Australia and Service Skills Victoria want to hear from Australian Workers

Service Skills Australia and Service Skills Victoria are calling for workers in the service industries to participate in a survey and contribute to the future direction of accredited training in Australia.

In 2008, Service Skills Australia conducted an online survey in which 90% of respondents stated that their business provides on-the-job training. But do employers and workers have different views on what training really means? Service Skills is seeking to answer this question, and explore how workers benefit from training.

The survey will provide information to the service industries about the value and uptake of on-the-job training and the awareness of accredited qualifications and certificates.

Participants have the chance to go in the draw to win a $250 gift voucher.

To participate go to www.serviceskills.com.au/surveys

Hardcopies can also be requested by contacting Anne-Marie Yates ayates@serviceskills.com.au

This survey is completely anonymous and should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete. Closing date: 30 September 2009.

Developing Tourism Leaders Awards

The Developing Tourism Leaders Awards were held on Monday 10th of November 2008. They were a great success with a good turnout of students and industry representatives. The tourism category winner was Isabelle Mauderli from Victoria University with her submission 'Discovery Podcast Creations', a company that specialises in podcast's for tourism businesses. The hospitality category winner was Lorena Ropain, from Kangan Batman TAFE with her submission 'The Recess Café', a coffee shop in Carlton, adding entertainment to the coffee experience. The events category winner was Katie Clough from William Angliss Institute with her submission 'The Body Art Festival 2010', a brand new concept for Australia. Katie was also the overall winner. Thank you to all those involved in these awards, particularly the major sponsors, premium sponsor and principal sponsor, whose support allows this initiative to grow each year. For more information on the DTL awards please visit the website at www.dtlawards.com.

Visits for 2009 have started and again, students are coming up with fantastic and innovative ideas. If you are interested in SSV coming to your institute, don't hesitate to contact Emma at the SSV office on 03 9621 1777.

Training Packages - Update (check the latest update on SSA's website www.serviceskills.com)

Review of the Caravan Industry Training Package

Following widespread consultation with the caravan industry, Service Skills Australia has completed the revision of qualifications and competency standards that the industry will use in the future.

Consultations included industry members from all over Australia involved in the manufacturing, servicing and retail of caravans, and caravan park operators. A summary of the changes is available on the SSA website.

Review of the Funeral Services Training Package WFS02

The Funeral Services Training Package was submitted for endorsement in December 2007. Service Skills Australia was notified on the 27 August 2008 that the SIF08 Funeral Services Training Package was endorsed by the National Quality Council (NQC).

Summaries and drafts of the units of competencies are available for download on the Service Skills Australia website.

Continuous Improvement of the Tourism, Hospitality and Events Training Package SIT07

Service Skills Australia are continuing work on the Continuous Improvement of the Tourism, Hospitality and Events Training Package. Three areas have been identified by industry for further scoping and action. These are:

• Scoping of Inert Gas Safety
• Scoping of Sommelier
• Updating of Wine knowledge units of competency from AgriFoods

The scoping of the inert gas safety was successful, with the addition of an extra unit, and minor changes to six existing units within SIT07.These units are available on the SSA feedback register.

The wine knowledge and sommelier skills sets have been drafted after consultation, and are available for public feedback on the SSA feedback register on their website.

Beauty Training Package Continuous Improvement

Service Skills Australia is currently conducting a project for the continuous improvement of the WRB04 Beauty Training Package. The continuous improvement of this training package provides the opportunity for industry, training organisations, employers, employees and anyone else with an interest in this training package to be involved and provide input into the further skills and knowledge requirements of the beauty industry. The draft units for the SIB09 Beauty Training Package are now available for comment on the feedback register. This process has involved the updating of existing units and the development of new draft units in the areas of hair removal and spa. It is anticipated that new units will be made available in the coming weeks.

Floristry Training Package Continuous Improvement

SSA is currently seeking feedback from both industry and RTO stakeholders on draft units of competency. Draft units of competence are now available for comment on the SSA feedback register.

Service Skills Australia has compiled two supporting documents to assist stakeholders when reviewing the draft units of competency. These are available on the SSA website, under Training Package reviews.

Validations workshops will be taking place in each state/territory capital city during March. Service Skills Australia will work with its state/territory network to organise the workshops. A list of workshop dates will be available in early February 2009.

Training Package User Guides

Service Skills Australia has developed a series of Training Package User Guides to help registered training organisations (RTOs) effectively implement our training packages, and deliver training that meets industry's needs.

This is a free resource for RTOs which aims to improve the quality of training and assessment. Industry believes in quality training and assessment, and these resources will help achieve that.

The user guides have been developed for the retail, hairdressing, and tourism, hospitality and events industries. The focus is to clearly set out industry views and expectations about how training and assessment should occur. This resource will help ensure good practice in skills and knowledge development.

Industry has its own part to play in ensuring quality outcomes and effective skills development-by facilitating work placement and by pro-actively working with registered training organisations to develop and improve training programs. These guides are available on the SSA website (www.serviceskills.com.au)

Career Chart - Events

SSV obtained Reframing the Future funding in 2008 to look at a community of practice researching career paths in the events industry. As a result of the discussions amongst the members which included industry and training organisation representatives, the group developed a career chart outlining options available for students at all qualification levels of events from the new SIT07 package. To view this career chart, please visit the careers page on the SSV website www.ssv.org.au.

Service Skills 'Working with Workforce Development' Forum

Service Skills Victoria, in partnership with Service Skills Australia, held an industry forum on 23rd April exploring the concept of workforce development. The challenge is greater than finding sufficient people to meet a growing market. Employers need to look beyond traditional workforce issues and consider how they can develop attractive, productive workplaces.

Speakers included Therese Bryant from the Shop Distributive & Allied Employees Association, Sandra Campitelli from Hair Beauty Industry Association, Marni Ladd from Australian Centre for Retail Studies, John Hart from Restaurant and Catering Association, Garry Terrill from Australian Retail Association and Jeanette Allen from Service Skills Australia. Workshops were also conducted by Michael Russel from Master Grocers of Australia who showcased e-learning tools for industry and Peter Tesdorpf and Associates who gave an overview of the workforce development strategy they are researching for Tourism Victoria.

Feedback has been positive and constructive, with attendees taking many messages back to their workplaces. SSV is currently going through the process of collating all the feedback comments. SSV would like to thank Service Skills Australia for their support in this forum.

Skills for Growth

The Skills for Growth program has now commenced. The program will help Victorian small to medium sized businesses, including those in the community sector, with workforce skills development. The program provides a team of independent workforce planning and training specialists to deliver free assistance to the business. Through the program, eligible workers will be able to access training solutions.

Skills for Growth is part of the Victorian Government's skills reform package with $52 million committed to the program to address the skills needs of business and the training needs of the workforce. If you want to find out more about the skills reform package visit the Skills Victoria website at www.skills.vic.gov.au.

Tourism Victoria Workforce Development

The Victorian Government's Ten Year Tourism and Events Industry Strategy notes that up to 66,000 new employees will be needed to support Victorian tourism industry growth over the next ten years.

The issue of skill shortages in general, and tourism in particular, has become crucial to whether the industry can cope with the forecast growth. This has been clearly articulated to Tourism Victoria during the recent consultation for Tourism Victoria's Regional Tourism Action Plan and regions have been asking for solutions to the problem.

Difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff are affected by a range of factors which are prevalent across the economy, such as the tight labour market in general, an ageing workforce and migration of people to cities.

Beyond these factors, however, are a number of issues specific to the tourism industry, including perceptions the industry is a source of temporary employment, comparatively less pay and worse working hours and a lack of industry investment in professional development and training.

The need for a Workforce Development Plan (WDP) was identified in the Ten Year Tourism and Events Industry Strategy to address these issues.

Work Placement Manuals

The resources developed as a requirement for the Reframing the Future project in 2007 have taken the next step forward and have now been produced as a downloadable document for all RTO's, students and employers to use when looking at placing a student in a work placement environment. The work placement manuals are for Cert II Hospitality Kitchen Operations. Designed to help develop the relationship between student, RTO and business and have a successful placement experience which is beneficial to student and business owner. The manuals have been tried and tested at several training providers with great reviews. There will be more manuals produced for higher certificates and these will be freely available as well.

There have been a few issues in the release on these documents, but they are expected to be released as soon as possible. Notification will be sent to all stakeholders when these are available.

Stepping Up - Case Studies in Workforce Development

Service Skills Victoria has supported the notion that skill development assists industry's development. Training brings direct benefits to business and plays a major role in staff retention. In addition, training is an investment that assists employees to develop their career potential while giving industry a highly skilled workforce.

Through its research and consultations, SSV has highlighted the importance of business/management skills. It has found that successful businesses within the service industries, although diversified, share similar practices in developing their workforces.

The anticipated outcome of this project is to develop case studies which document the workforce development strategies used by industry. Case studies are a powerful tool in illustrating principles in a way that abstract generalisations and statistics cannot.