Skills for Growth: An Essential Guide to the Victorian Governments Strategic Planning and Workforce Development Initiative for Small and Medium Business
Skills for Growth is a strategic planning and workforce development program run by the Government of Victoria that provides small and medium businesses in the State of Victoria with free access to skilled business consultants and to employee training opportunities. Skills for Growth is designed to assist small/medium business owners and managers in their efforts to achieve higher levels of short-range and long-range success by surfacing their business’ most important objectives and targets and identifying - and resolving - employee skill gaps.
Key benefits that the Skills for Growth program is meant to create for participating businesses include:
- Enhanced business productivity and performance
- Improved employee effectiveness and efficiency
- Increased capability to innovate
- Expanded range of employee capabilities
- Reduced costs
Ultimately, all of the benefits listed above are meant to show up on the business’ bottom line in the form of increased profits.
Background of the Skills for Growth Program
The Victorian Government committed $52 million in funding to the Skills for Growth program in recognition of the fact that small and medium businesses play such a pivotal role in Victoria’s economy.In fact, small and medium businesses make up more than ninety-nine percent of all businesses in Victoria and employ nearly one million people.
Skills for Growth launched in April of 2009 with 25 Service Providers - working in partnership with independent workforce planning and training Specialists - approved to provide accredited training services to eligible businesses.
Skills for Growth Structure
After a business registers with the Skills for Growth program (which can be done by visiting the website at www.business.vic.gov.au/skillsforgrowth) and selects a Service Provider that best suits its needs, the Service Provider assigns an independent workforce planning and training Specialist who contacts the business owner and arranges for an on-site visit.
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 Phase One, a workforce planning and training Specialists meets with the business owner/manager and carries out a business analysis that results in the creation of a workforce development plan. The workforce development plan identifies, among other things, opportunities for upskilling and recommendations for training.
Following are the steps to the first phase of the Skills for Growth program:
- The completion of a business review that plots out the business’ strategic direction and identifies key business needs
- Assessment of the skills and training needs of employees as they relate to the business’ strategic direction
- Development of a Workforce Training and Action Plan that identifies business and employee skills needs and that recommends referrals to relevant training programs and learning opportunities
Other than the time of the business owner/manager and staff, there is no cost to participate in the first phase of the Skills for Growth program.
Phase 2
The second phase of the program unfolds only if the business owner or manager decides to proceed with the training recommendations.
Following is a high-level overview of the key steps to phase two:
- 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)
Although there are costs associated with the second phase of the Skills for Growth program, a business’ staff may be eligible for the Victorian Training Guarantee which can provide significant subsidies for Victorians who are placed into recognised vocational training courses. Some of the basic eligibility considerations are: age, residency status, educational background, and citizenship.
The Skills for Growth program typically takes four weeks to complete, with the follow-up review generally completed after six months.
Skills for Growth Eligibility
Skills for Growth is open to all small and medium businesses that are based in Victoria. Other eligibility requirements include:
- Employ between 1 and 200 people
- Have been in business for at least 12 months
- Be financially viable
The eligibility requirements are obviously set to maximize participation in the program.
Key Statistics on the Skills for Growth Program
The Skills for Growth program had reached the following milestones as of the end of January 2010:
- 1,648 businesses had registered for the program
- 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 training plans were eligible for the Victorian Training Guarantee
Obviously, business uptake of the Skills for Growth program has been strong. Businesses have also been getting strong results from teh Skills for Growth program, which you can read more about on Business Victoria’s website.
If you own or manage a Victoria-based business - and your business ticks the other “eligibility boxes” - you should really consider checking out the Skills for Growth program.
