Future of Employment and Skills

FES and the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies (SACES) were commissioned by SAPOL to undertake a longitudinal research project covering the period 1992-2022 to determine the impact of mental ill-health on SAPOL policing resources and its evolution over time.

FES developed a baseline dataset to profile Australia’s seafood workforce, identifying data gaps and informing workforce planning under demographic and industry change.

We explored the scale and scope of data on the Australian seafood workforce and illustrated how different sources can provide additional insights for monitoring and supporting that workforce and its industry.  Our comprehensive review identified key challenges for a workforce that is experiencing demographic changes in conjunction with external pressures, but that these challenges have been experienced in seafood here and internationally and in food-based resource sectors both historically and contemporaneously. Using insights and guidance from a stakeholder engagement group, we investigated the ability of different data sources to evaluate questions of key importance for seafood workforce planning.

FES supported multiple independent evaluations and baseline studies across trial sites, assessing the impacts of program introduction and cessation across Australia.

FES was commissioned by the Department of Social Services to undertake the second independent impact evaluation of the Cashless Debit Card trial. The second evaluation included the first three Cashless Debit Card trial sites of Ceduna and surrounds, East Kimberley and the Goldfields. This second impact evaluation aimed to further develop an evidence base for the Cashless Debit Card, to better understand ‘what works, for whom, under what circumstances and when’.

FES provided evidence about the impacts and outcomes of the cessation of the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) in the first four trial areas in which it was rolled out: Ceduna and surrounds in South Australia, East Kimberley and the Goldfields in Western Australia and Bundaberg and Hervey Bay in Queensland.

In this project, we provided a critical survey of approaches to skills demand forecasting used in Australia. We have covered five national-level approaches, namely:

• the skills forecasting model developed by Deloitte Access Economics
• the skills forecasting model developed by the Centre of Policy Studies (now based at Victoria University based on a computable general equilibrium model)
• projections of employment developed by the Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business and its predecessors
• the national foresight exercise undertaken by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation (CSIRO)
•  the indicator system developed by the National Institute of Labour Studies for the former Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency.

In addition, FES surveyed the forecasting approaches used by each State and Territory and those used by ‘industry’ (represented by the six Skills Service Organisations that support the Industry Reference Committees reporting to the Australian Industry and Skills Committee).

FES was commissioned by the Department of Social Services to conduct a qualitative study to explore NDIS plan utilisation and the factors which support and hinder NDIS participants use of NDIS funds.

The study has a particular focus on four key groups who have been identified as being at risk of low utilisation of NDIS funding, i.e. people from Indigenous and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds, with complex needs, a psychosocial disability, and/or live in a remote location.

Examining experiences in six diverse sites in Australia, interviews were conducted with NDIS participants and their family members/carers, and consultations have been undertaken with key stakeholders. The qualitative research was undertaken as a part of a broader national study with additional research being conducted by the Public Service Research Group at the University of New South Wales and Melbourne Disability Institute at the University of Melbourne.

Our research evaluated youth and disability inclusion programs, assessing outcomes, effectiveness and conditions for success.

FES was commissioned to undertake an evaluation of the three programs (EYDN, DEAA, DIT) on behalf of Purple Orange. The aim was to provide rigorous analyses of the outcomes obtained by participants of these programs, namely determining whether the programs achieve their intended aims, for whom they best work and in what circumstances.

FES developed a multidisciplinary method to provide an understanding of the current unmet need and future demand for aged care advocacy services in South Australia. This project was articulated around the following key research questions:

• What is the current level of advocacy service use? Is there unmet need? Are there waiting times or areas of service gaps including for areas of specialist advocacy, geographic or service offerings?
• What is the future level of need/ demand for advocacy services? How will this be impacted by demographic changes, and aged care reform measures?
• What impact will broader aged care reforms have on these projected levels of demand?
• How is ARAS able to meet the projected levels of demand?

FES provided technical advice to the Department of Education on the new direct measure of income (DMI) methodology aimed at estimating the Capacity to Contribute (CTC) of families of students enrolled in non-government schools. This methodology is used in the determination of the proportion of schools’ operational costs subsidised by the government.

The technical advice was on three areas of the DMI methodology, namely (i) how to tackle missingness in the linked administrative data and income imputation issues, (ii) which statistical measure of school level income to implement in the DMI methodology, and (iii) the appropriateness of equivalising income to account for students’ family sizes at school level.

FES was commissioned by the Aged Care Workforce Strategy Taskforce to examine attraction, retention and skills utilisation in the aged care workforce.

Using both quantitative and qualitative data from the 2012 and 2016 National Aged Care Workforce Census and Survey (NACWCS) data collections, we examined the pathways taken by workers into aged care and the factors which are likely to facilitate or hinder attraction into the sector. We also explored the factors that are likely to influence the retention of aged care workers in the sector as well as the presence and impact of skill shortages within the sector.

We produced a report for the Taskforce outlining the findings of the project along with recommendations of the steps the sector could take to achieve a skilled and sustainable aged care workforce both now and into the future. This evidence is being used by the Taskforce to develop strategies for growing and sustaining the aged care workforce.

The aim of this project was to examine the access of the disability sector to sufficient numbers of skilled and experienced workers during the first years of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) roll-out.

We undertook a national assessment of existing and emerging skills imbalances in the disability sector, and examined workforce size and location, and the types of skills which are available and the skills that will be required as the NDIS rolls out.

The multi-method approach analysed an integration of evidence from quantitative nationally-representative vocational education and training (VET) data on disability-related training enrolments and completions, including the post-training employment outcomes, and from targeted in-depth, qualitative semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, including training providers, people with disability, disability support providers, and disability support workers.

Addressing the Australian Government’s Strategic Research Priority of ‘Promoting population health and wellbeing’, we conducted the first in-depth exploration to date of supply-side issues in the aged care workforce in Australia.

This project aimed to provide new evidence on how to attract, retain and up-skill workers as the aged care sector strives to achieve a sustainable and skilled workforce fit for the future needs of older Australians.

Using a mixed methods design, this project combined secondary analysis of representative national datasets, with the collection and analysis of qualitative data. Additionally, a novel and innovative use of discrete choice experiment (DCE) methodology was used to elicit the attitudes and preferences of aged care workers regarding future employment in the sector.