Victorian Governments Skills for Growth Program: A Guide to the Small and Medium Business Workforce Development and Strategic Planning Program
Skills for Growth is the Victoria Government’s workforce development and strategic planning initiative that is designed to provide small and medium businesses based in Victoria with access to workforce planning and training experts and employee training specialists – for free The goal of the program is to help small and medium business owners achieve greater levels of near-term and long-term success by mapping out their business’ key goals and priorities and evaluating – and closing – capability gaps in their workforce.
Key benefits that the Skills for Growth program is meant to create for participating businesses include:
- Enhanced business productivity and performance
- Heightened effectiveness and efficiency of the workforce
- Greater capacity to innovate
- Expanded range of employee capabilities
- Reduced costs
All of which, of course, lead to the realization of the ultimate benefit for businesses: improved profits.
Skills for Growth Program Background
In recognitiion of the fact that small and medium businesses represent about 99% of all businesses in the State of Victoria – and employ just under one million people – the State Government decided to commit $52 million in funding to the Skills for Growth program to help ensure their growth and competitiveness.
The Skills for Growth program was rolled out in April of 2009 with a panel of 25 different Service Providers – who were chosen after the conclusion of a lengthy evaluation process – that have been approved to provide – working in tandem with workforce planning and training Specialists – accredited training to businesses that sign up for the program.
Skills for Growth Program Structure
After businesses register with the Skills for Growth initiative and select a Service Provider that best meets their needs, Service Providers assign independent workforce planning and training Specialists to content the business owner/manager and arrange for onsite meetings.
It’s necessary for workforce planning and training Specialists to have completed a Training and Assessment (TAA) course, as well as an accredited training course in Assess Informal Learning (AIL), a prerequisite for which is the completion of several units from Certificate IV.
The Skills for Growth program basically goes through two phases.
Phase 1
In the first phase, a workforce planning and training Specialist conducts an onsite business review that concludes with the creation of a detailed plan for the development of the workforce. A workforce development plan details, among other things, opportunities for upskilling the workforce and makes recommendations for training.
Following is a high-level overview of the key steps to phase one:
- Completing a top-level analysis of the business that maps out its strategic direction
- Assessing the capabilities and training needs of the workforce, especially as they relate to the strategic direction of the business
- Developing a Workforce Training and Action Plan that maps out business needs and workforce skills needs and that provides referrals to key training programs and developmental opportunities
There are no costs associated with participating in the first phase.
Phase 2
In Phase Two, business owners/managers must first decide whether or not to proceed with the recommendations made by the workforce planning and training Specialist.
Basic overview of the key steps of the second phase:
- The facilitation of the placement of staff into training courses with accredited training organisations
- Completing a follow-up review following the completion of training (or following at least three months of training) and a Skills for Growth report which business owners/managers must review (and approve)
Phase two must be funded by the participating businesses, whose staff may be eligible for the Victorian Training Guarantee, which offers substantial subsidies for placements in recognised vocational training courses. Eligibility is determined by a number of different factors – including: age, educational background, citizenship, and residency status.
It usually takes about four weeks to complete the Skills for Growth program. The followup review is generally completed after about six months.
Eligibility for the Skills for Growth Program
The Skills for Growth program is open to all small and medium sized businesses that are based in Victoria. Other eligibility requirements include:
- Employ between 1 and 200 people
- Have been in operation for at least 12 months
- Be financially stable
The eligibility requirements are obviously set to maximize participation in the program.
Key Statistics on the Skills for Growth Program
By the end of January 2010, Skills for Growth had reached the following milestones:
- 1,648 businesses had signed up for Skills for Growth
- 667 workforce action plans had been approved by businesses
- 17.934 employee training plans had been signed off on by business owners/managers
- 10,488 approved employee training plans had met eligibility requirements for the Victorian Training Guarantee
Clearly uptake of the Skills for Growth program by Victorian businesses has been strong. So, too, have the results that many businesses have seen from their participation in the program, which you can read about in the case studies published on the Business Victoria website.
If you’ve got a business that’s based in Victoria – and that meets the other eligibility criteria – you can only benefit by at least checking out the Skills for Growth program.