Information communication technology (ICT) is being embedded into industry sectors across Australia to meet the challenges of workforce development.

The national training system’s e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework), has awarded approximately $600,000 through its Industry Integration of E-learning business activity to advance e-learning and make workplace skills development less costly and more consistent, accessible and flexible.

Seven industry sectors are using the funding to integrate e-learning via their employer networks to support the
re-skilling and up-skilling of new and current employees.

Industry Integration of E-learning Business Manager Jenny Dodd said that unlike previous Framework funding to industry, which created one-off training solutions and demonstrations, this new funding will ensure industry sectors have the initial cash injection and support to use ICT for workforce development over the long term.

“It’s about strategy, planning and long term development,” she said. “All the industry sectors that have been awarded the funding are peak bodies, so e-learning will be trialled and embedded with the involvement of key employers.

“The successful applicants were those that presented the strongest case in terms of their ability to embed e-learning in their industry workforce development strategies. They also demonstrated they had plans in place for sustainability post-funding.”

Each industry sector will benchmark where they are at in terms of e-learning at the beginning and end of the funding period using a survey tool based on the Framework’s e-learning indicators. The idea is to demonstrate the increased uptake of e-learning by the participating employers within that industry sector.

Supporting each industry is the e-learning expertise of a range of registered training organisations (RTOs). These partnerships will be essential to ensure good e-learning practice is developed and the experience for learners in the industry is positive.

Five industry sectors – stainless steel, medical technology, dairy, water, and independent supermarket and liquor, have each received $100,000 this year with future funding of $100,000 earmarked for each industry sector over the next two years. Each industry will match this funding with contributions equal to or more than the seed funding. The three-year vision is designed to bring about long-term, sustainable advances to e-learning in each industry sector.

In addition, Aged and Community Services Australia is being funded $50,000 for a one-year industry sector project to develop a strategic workforce development plan incorporating e-learning for the aged care sector. Four aged care providers in at least two states will be actively engaged during 2008 in piloting e-learning with their workforces.

Furthermore, a business cluster associated with the fertiliser industry has received a one-year grant of $48,894 for
e-learning solutions that will be trialled with two major employers.

An overview of the seven industry sectors and how they plan to integrate e-learning into their workforce development programs follows:

Stainless steel (three year)
The stainless steel manufacturing industry in Australia comprises tradespeople across 4,500 organisations. Employee numbers can range from one to 350 in each organisation. Currently apprentices are trained on-the-job and through TAFE block release. Continued professional development (CPD) training for current employees tends to be ad-hoc across the industry.

Skills shortages, regionalisation, an ageing workforce and inconsistent training have become major issues for the industry as it struggles to keep up with demand. The Australian Stainless Steel Development Association (ASSDA) is using e-learning as the tool to overcome these issues and respond to employer demand for more flexible training.

The ASSDA will develop a workforce development strategy and work with RTO SkillsTech Australia to offer more
on-the-job training for apprentices and the up-skilling and/or refreshing of current employees’ skills, through the use of e-learning.

Richard Matheson, ASSDA Executive Director, is the driving force behind the growth of e-learning in the industry.

“Employees can undertake e-learning on their own, meaning trainers in businesses have more time to concentrate on production or are available to offer more advanced training with other employees,” he said.

“It also offers time efficient training with immediate application in the workforce. This is attractive to organisations as they can designate small yet regular periods of training for their staff, rather than losing employees for long periods of time.”

The outcome of this project will be the development of a complete workforce development strategy incorporating two clear learning development pathways: one for apprentices and one for existing employees.

The focus will be on providing e-learning, where appropriate, as alternative to (and complementing) traditional training methods. The project will include sourcing  e-resources currently available through other institutions, as well as implementing ASSDA's Stainless Steel Specialist Course in apprenticeship programs by mapping it to nationally accredited units of competency.

Medical technology (three year)
Members of the Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA) manufacture, export and distribute more than 90% of the non-pharmaceutical products used in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and disability in Australia. Member companies play a vital role in providing healthcare professionals with essential education and training to ensure safe and effective use of medical technology.

However, in the medical devices industry, the hours of training and expenditure on training are significantly lower than the average for all manufacturing and industry. This industry is characterised by both small businesses and very large employers.

MTAA is overcoming this situation through a comprehensive professional development program, including the development of e-learning to increase participation in education and training.

MTAA has partnered with RTO VHIA (Victorian Hospitals Industrial Association) and an e-learning specialist, webqem, to embed e-learning as a delivery method for professional development in the medical technology workforce.

The project will develop e-learning models to address the workforce development priorities of recruiting and retaining staff within the industry. They will be accessed through a learning management system.

Anne Trimmer, MTAA Chief Executive Officer, said at present there was a comparatively low level of e-learning undertaken across the industry.

“However, our employees do tend to be technologically savvy and have regular access to technology which makes engagement in e-learning an obvious solution,” she said.

“We will provide well-designed, engaging opportunities that fully utilise the interactive capacities for the internet. Skills and knowledge will be further developed through the use of these resources.”

In particular, e-learning will support three training programs: Supporting Interns, Orientation to Management, and Working with Healthcare Professionals. These programs will align with units of competency from the Health Training Package and the Business Services Training Package.

To assist with the adoption of e-learning, participants will initially be supported in their online learning through a mentor or learners’ guide. This will lead onto self-paced learning.

The outcomes for the medical technology industry will include:
• increased take-up rate of professional development across the industry, both on and off the job
• increased knowledge, skills and understanding that align with attainment towards a qualification
• increased e-learning opportunities that align with national training packages and units of competency
• a shift to student-centred learning.

Dairy (three year)
The Australian dairy industry is one of the country’s major rural industries yet, like many others, suffers from skills shortages and retention of staff. To overcome this, the dairy industry has established the National Centre for Dairy Education Australia (NCDEA) with the goal of ‘producing the best dairy people in the world’.

The NCDEA has completed a comprehensive review of all its course structures and content to more accurately reflect the needs of the industry. It found course resources were well developed but primarily paper based.

Some of these course components have been translated into e-learning for the milk processing area and online assessment is being developed with TAFE Tasmania.

Project managed by peak industry body Dairy Australia, the purpose of the project is to accelerate the introduction of e-learning in the industry, shifting away from face-to-face and print-based resources. This will be achieved by:

• building a pool of e-learning expertise through a mentoring program
• the creation of e-learning workforce development strategies and action plans for large and small dairy industry enterprises
• an expanded range of e-learning resources mapped to nationally accredited units of competency
• increased awareness of the availability and effectiveness of e-learning.

The Dairy Australia project will work specifically with two groups. Farmers and farm advisors will initially focus on compliance around work practices and occupational health and safety, both matters that farmers have difficulty with. Some aspects of food processing are universal and will be the driving force behind introducing e-learning to dairy manufacturers and milk processors.

John Boomsma, Dairy Australia Business Development Manager, said the purpose of the project was to integrate
e-learning workforce development programs within the dairy industry.

“People in dairy industry workplaces will be able to equip themselves with the knowledge, skills, motivation and confidence to improve business competitiveness and sustainability via e-learning,” he said.

“We will use selected enterprises as case studies to provide the basis for expanding e-learning into progressively more enterprises. This will be accelerated by sharing the e-learning resources within the NCDEA national network of partner RTOs and industry networks.”

An important partner in this industry project is TAFE Tasmania which is guiding the e-learning implementation.

Independent supermarket and liquor (three year)
Master Grocers Australia (MGA) is Australia’s leading national industry employer association for independent grocery and liquor supermarkets, representing independently owned IGA and Foodworks supermarkets and independent liquor stores.

MGA has identified a number of issues within the sector:

• employee turnover is high
• applicants entering the workforce are poorly skilled
• workforce participation in formal professional development activities is very low
• access to formal training, development and career opportunities is limited
• there is a critical need for Occupational Health and Safety regulatory compliance training.

Michael Russell, MGA National Training Manager, said the independent grocery and liquor sector was in desperate need of a workforce development solution.

“It needs to give the sector every opportunity of operating their businesses legally, growing the capability of their businesses and attracting and retaining the talented employees they develop,” he said.

“Large organisations, such as Coles and Woolworths, can afford the infrastructure needed to ensure that legal requirements are met. However most independents within the sector cannot afford this expense and require a low cost/affordable flexible solution to achieve compliance.

“Our own research has confirmed that, owing to the tyranny of distance and owner’s reluctance to release staff for training, a MGA supported web-based learning system is the preferred delivery method for a workforce development solution.”

E-learning will play a major part in achieving MGA’s desired future position, which includes reduced employee turnover, improved career pathways and professional development linked to nationally accredited qualifications.

The e-tools will include an online pre-employment program, online induction program, online product knowledge training program and online system to ensure compliance obligations are met. These tools will complement a recognition of prior learning (RPL) process. The e-tools will be developed in conjunction with BLM (Business Learning Materials) and GippsTAFE, both Victorian-based RTOs.

Water (three year)
The water industry in Australia is complex, with some state/territory governments controlling all the services within their state/territory, while elsewhere local government and private organisations provide the water and sewerage services. They are all geographically dispersed and vary markedly in size and organisational form.

Equally as complicated is the approach to water industry training, with the larger water utilities being RTOs in their own right, and the remainder of the industry receiving training services from TAFEs and private RTOs.

The water industry is undergoing significant changes in institutional arrangements, legislative requirements and workforce structure, which will continue at a significant pace for at least the next decade. Many of these changes are driving an increased need for a consistent industry sector training framework.

The need for e-learning to be an integral part of water industry training is clear. Shiftwork, current staff shortages and remoteness of many of the workers mean that face-to-face and distance learning are not adequate.

However, e-learning is not yet well developed nor recognised within the industry sector and there is some hesitancy in adopting online approaches to water training. At the moment only Queensland and Victoria have adopted any form of e-learning.This project, spearheaded by Queensland Water Directorate (more commonly known as qldwater), aims to rapidly boost the recognition, uptake and ongoing development of e-learning by building on the initial work of Wide Bay Institute of TAFE.

The outcomes of the project will include:

• increased uptake of e-learning in the Australian water industry
• increased capacity and capability of RTO partners providing e-learning services aligned to the Water Training Package
• integration of e-learning in industry workforce development plans
• improved integration of e-learning for the water industry nationally.

Dr Rob Fearon, Executive Manager of Queensland Water Directorate, said: “Online learning has not been embraced broadly by the water industry in the past. E-learning for water industry workers has been developed in Queensland by Wide Bay TAFE and complements face-to-face and distance education modes for the water industry.

“However, it is still in its infancy and requires further support to promote the benefits and bridge the barriers preventing this mode from achieving the success which ispossible and demonstrated in other industries. Online induction programs have been successful in SE Water (Melbourne) but otherwise the use of e-learning by the water industry is rare outside Queensland.”

Aged care (one year)
The aged care industry is growing rapidly in response to Australia’s ageing population, creating increased demand for aged care services (both residential and community care).

The industry sector employs a varied range of staff including nurses, personal carers allied health professionals, cooks, administrative officers and domestic assistants. But a growing workforce crisis is confronting the industry sector, exacerbated by competition with other industries that offer better pay and conditions.

The National Aged Care Workforce Strategy has been developed by the Australian Government, in conjunction with Aged and Community Care Services Australia (ACSA) and other key stakeholders, in an attempt to address the issues. One of its objectives is for the sector to be underpinned by appropriate education, training and workforce development opportunities.

ACSA, in conjunction with RTO Australian Institute of Care Development, is using this project to develop an aged care industry plan to embed e-learning, and its principles, into workforce development plans and strategies.

Lesley Dredge, ACSA Policy Officer, said the peak body felt e-learning had enormous potential for such a diverse industry.

“The outcome of this project will be an industry sector plan to help organisations within our industry realise and utilise the full potential of e-learning,” she said. “Our members operate all over Australia and many regional and remote services have difficulty releasing staff to attend training held many hours away from the workplace.

“Also a large proportion of our workforce is part-time and so there is the need for a more efficient and time effective delivery method. The rapid changes facing the sector require other forms of flexible training to complement face-to-face delivery. We want the industry to see how e-learning can be incorporated into training programs to overcome these issues.”

The project will take an action learning approach to the development of an industry e-learning embedding strategy. It will comprise a literature search of barriers to, and successfull use of, e-learning. Four aged care providers will work with a training partner to review their workforce development plans for incorporation of e-learning. Some training will also be carried out using e-learning. The outcome will be an industry plan to embed e-learning.

Fertiliser (one year)
The fertiliser and soil ameliorant industry is as essential to Australia’s agricultural production as it is to the world’s food chain and every increasing population. However, as useful as fertiliser is to productivity, it also has the potential to cause major environmental damage, especially to water quality.

In order to reduce the risk of fertiliser use, the Fertilizer Industry Federation of Australia (FIFA) and the Australian Fertiliser Services Association (AFSA) have developed Fertcare in partnership with all major fertiliser suppliers including Landmark and Elders Pty Ltd. Fertcare (delivered at three levels) aims to increase the skills and knowledge of everyone involved in the supply, advice and use of fertilisers – for productivity, food safety and environmental benefits.

The training program for Level B focuses on people involved in the sale of fertilizer products. It is delivered via CD-ROM for self-paced learning, plus a one-day workshop and assessment program. However, many of the salespeople are based in regional and remote areas and the cost of staging and attending the workshops is very high. Therefore uptake of the training to date has been less than 40%.

The e-learning project, delivered in association with RTO Agsafe, will convert the training material and assessment process currently delivered at the one-day workshops, into an online, interactive format.

Martin Shafron, FIFA Environment Manager, said that in partnership with nutrient specialists, fertiliser sales staff can play a major role in influencing farmers' decisions about what, how, when and where they use fertiliser products.

"These decisions have critical relevance to plant productivity, environmental health and occupational health and safety," he said. "The e-learning format will allow staff to complete the course at times that suit their working and personal schedules – rather than when a training course might be available nearby."

While initially focusing on 50 Landmark and Elders staff, the e-learning solution will eventually be available to all FIFA and AFSA members, as well as
non-members – including government employees. Collectively, it is expected that nearly 1,000 sales staff will benefit from it, increasing the uptake of Level B training to more than 95%.

Check out the E-learning for Industry website to access the full business cases for the successful applicants as well as updates on their progress throughout the year.

This industry-focused website also holds information about 40 industry e-learning demonstrations developed between 2005–2007. Among the other media-rich resources is the online Practical guide to e-learning for industry where businesses can discover how to make e-learning work in their organisation.

For other industry sectors, which maybe interested in applying in 2009, go to the website for information on who to contact.  

Go to: http://industry.flexiblelearning.net.au/

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Published on 30/7/2008