Understanding skills gaps/training needs in the transport sector

Transport and mobility is an industry undergoing significant change, not least due to technological transformation and access to data. This poses important questions regarding the future of work in the sector and its continued productivity. In order to stay ahead of the curve and extract optimal benefits from these changes we need to ensure that we have an appropriately skills workforce.

Participants

• RMIT University

Project background

The significance of the Transport and Mobility (T&M) sector to the Australian economy, in terms of Gross National Product, value added supply chain facilitation and employment, cannot be overstated. As of 2019, it comprised 62,121 firms, many of them SMEs and employed about 273,170 people (IBISWorld, 2019).

Although digitalisation and automation might affect employment, it will remain a major employer in coming years. Furthermore, according to a 2018 ABS report:

Total transport activity contributed $77 billion to the Australian economy in 2015-16’.

It was also critical to the day-to-day business of all other industries, contributing a further $45.3 billion of GDP, making up a total GDP contribution of $122.3b (7.3%) (see ABS, 2018). By all indication, the demand for transport and logistics services will continue to increase, adding more pressure on the existing capacity.

The capacity of the sector to continue performing its critical role across the economy relies on the supply and skills level of its workforce.

Recent academic and industry research attributes workforce issues and challenges to a number of developments and factors, including changing industry skills needs, as a result of workplace technological transformations, changing employment and training practices and a changing VET system to name a few.

So far, however, there has been no comprehensive national study to provide concrete evidence of the emerging skills gaps. This is perhaps due to the complexity and diversity of the industry, which comprises a wide range of sub-sectors, industries and occupations.

The study will be national in scope and will seek to be representative of the entire transport and mobility sector. It will employ a mixed method approach drawing on the combined strengths of industry stakeholder interviews, secondary data mining and analysis, industry research workshops and a comprehensive desktop review of literature on skills gaps.

Project objectives

1. Identify current and future skill needs in the transport and mobility sector
2. Conduct a skills gap analysis of the transport and mobility sector

This information will form the basis of a investigation into possible solutions to these gaps, including what training is needed, who needs it and how it might be effectively delivered.

Please note …

Ongoing, this page will be a living record of this project. As it continues, matures, hits milestones, etc., we’ll add information, links, images, interviews and more. Watch this space!