4.2: Skills
Addressing the skills challenge. Other Information:
As a skill-dependent economy running at almost full capacity, the ACT faces a major challenge in finding skilled workers.
The ACT Government’s forward strategy to deal with the skills challenge is set out in ACT Skills Future, a comprehensive package
of initiatives based on four key commitments: • People and Workforce: support careful growth of the ACT’s population by working
to make Canberra an attractive place to live and work, and focusing attraction efforts on workers who will fill skill gaps
and are likely to stay in the ACT. • Productivity: help make the workforce more productive by supporting training of people
throughout their working lives, and by sharing knowledge with the private sector. • Participation: work to increase the pool
of labour by engaging with those traditionally unable to participate in the workforce, and leveraging Commonwealth, Territory
and private funding to lift participation rates. • Education and Training: improve the productive capacity of the economy
by engaging with educators to ensure that education and training systems are responsive to the need of participants, industry
and the economy, and improve access to training opportunities for all Canberrans. Key initiatives include: • Expanding the
Skilled and Business Migration Program, which offers a range of sponsorships for skilled and business migrants who wish to
live in Canberra and apply their professional expertise by working in a skilled occupation, establishing a business or investing
in the ACT. • Increasing investment in vocational education and training programs to train more skilled workers. • Building
capacity in the ACT public service by implementing a new attraction and retention strategy, exploring a range of flexible
traineeship and apprenticeship options, seeking to reform graduate-entry programs, and improving leadership skills and managerial
capacity. • Broadening the reach and frequency of marketing activities of the Live in Canberra campaign, which was established
in 2006 to promote Canberra to people both interstate and overseas as an attractive employment destination. • Developing a
program to connect tertiary students with employees through formal work experience.
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