Submission to the National Skills Taxonomy Update: Building a System which Puts People and Skills First
The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia made a submission responding to the National Skills Taxonomy (NST) Update Discussion Paper: Building a system that puts skills and people first.
The Discussion Paper adopts a skills-first approach and explores how the NST can best promote equity in the workforce and reflect the full range of skills and capabilities needed for a dynamic, future-fit skills system. The Academy welcomes this approach and focus, while also noting the complexity of implementing the NST. With this in mind, our submission makes five recommendations intended to establish greater clarity on how the NST will operate in practice and support usability, interoperability and fit-for-purpose methodological approaches to skills forecasting.
- Recognise that skills are contextually and situationally grounded, integrate multiple forms of knowledge, and are adaptable and flexible to changing situations.
- Reduce ambiguity in the definition of skill by clarifying or removing the term “valued”.
- Ensure the National Skills Taxonomy recognises and embeds a broad conception of foundational and transferable capabilities.
- Design the pilot project with a clear objective of balancing practical value with administrative simplicity.
- Adopt a mixed-methods approach to skills forecasting to better anticipate emerging skills needs and prioritise lifelong skill development to ensure Australians can adapt to future workforce changes.
Click on ‘download’ to read the submission in full.
