The legislation creating data analysis agency Jobs and Skills Australia was amended in 2023 to include a review, which veteran education official Michele Bruniges has done.
She finds:
- Stakeholders want JSA to provide “meaningful insights” on the basis of the data it collects, “however, there is mixed feedback from stakeholders on the extent to which JSA, as an analytical and advisory body, should be providing targeted policy advice and suggestions”
- JSA’s role needs to be clear in the agency mix that includes ATEC, jobs and skills councils, the Productivity Commission and Bureau of Statistics as well as the estimable National Centre for Vocational Education Research. “The need for a future mechanism to minimise overlap or duplication,” was floated .
- As to ATEC, JSA could “play a larger role in higher education … to ensure there are strong linkages with the jobs and skills ecosystem.” Such as? “A system integrator that actively connects national and state-level workforce planning with, for example, the tertiary education and migration systems.” And while it was at it, there were suggestions it get into careers advising.
- There are areas into which it should not but, including “workplace arrangements,” however she finds “there are opportunities for JSA to explore further consolidating the data it utilises across the Commonwealth Government to extend its impact and minimise any duplication of efforts”
Ms Bruniges focuses overall on JSA operations in very detailed detail and approves of the agency so far, “overwhelmingly seen as a trusted, independent source of data and evidence‑based analysis on the labour market, workforce and skills needs. The recommendations of this Review … seek to enable JSA to build on its considerable progress to date and do not diminish JSA’s early success.”
And to extend it across government. “Given the unique insights that JSA could provide, the Review considers that JSA should develop and seek approval for a charging model that allows for commissioned work.”
Ms Bruniges also makes clear that JSA, “does not have regulatory responsibilities and has very limited direct oversight of levers to improve labour market outcomes in Australia, its influence is core to having an impact.”
She underestimates what impact can accomplish.
There is, for example, its proposal for a national compact on AI in education and training that could be managed by a, “centralised, co-ordinated and independent whole-of-government capacity or institution.”
JSA is also working on a national skills taxonomy, creating a single classification from the existing ten or so.
Either or both would confer immense influence on the agency creating them.
JSA was quick to respond to operational recommendations, with Professor Glover reading it as an endorsement for more and better of the same. “From the knowledge and guidance we have received as a result of the Review, it is clear that we have both the agency and endorsement to continue to be effective in engaging, advising and assisting the Australian Government and other stakeholders on the current, emerging and future skills and workforce needs of the Australian economy.”
“Engaging, advising, assisting,” writ large.