The recent announcement of 18,800 free training places represents a significant opportunity for our sectors to engage with Vocational Education and Training (VET), especially given the allocation of 8500 places for the care sector. While many of the qualifications and skill sets were already on the Lower fees, local skills list, the signing of the new 12-month skills agreement with the Commonwealth will ensure funding is maintained and access to free training is expanded throughout the community.

https://mailchi.mp/6fa855f825ee/cswa-newsletter-aug-16997073

According to the most recent available data, 774,000 children aged 0-14 years lived in poverty in 2017-18, accounting for 1 in 6 Australian children. Poverty has an impact on young people’s dreams and aspirations, and these statistics are confronting and unacceptable.

Reducing child poverty requires advocacy to ensure the development of a range of strategies and policy changes, especially in light of rising living costs. While CSWA can continue to support the advocacy and effect change through training strategies that create pathways and build capacity, the symposium highlighted the impact of one of our current projects.

https://mailchi.mp/7ef93691e81a/cswa-newsletter-aug-16605541

During the last month, the Community Skills WA team has remained focused on the implementation of Job Ready Programs for both Early Childhood Education & Care and Ageing & Disability. We will be organising and participating in several forums throughout regional Western Australia over the coming months, to discuss the community health workforce and opportunities to build capacity including amongst the existing workforce.

https://mailchi.mp/6cc389be63cf/cswa-newsletter-aug-16601553

A message from our Executive Director – Caroline Thompson

For my message this month I would like to share ‘The Story of the Starfish’ which resonates with me and highlights that even the smallest thing can make a difference. To you it might be something small, but to another person it could mean the world in any particular moment.

https://mailchi.mp/aabc27641b4b/cswa-newsletter-july-2022

The State Government has released its blueprint to address the growing demand for skilled workers in the State’s rapidly expanding social assistance and allied health sector. Community Skills WA, in collaboration with the State Training Board and key stakeholders in the social assistance and allied health sector presented the report with 25 recommendations to the State Government.

https://mailchi.mp/e663de395658/cswa-newsletter-june-16108377

It’s been an interesting time for Western Australia with the mandates and a lot of organisations moving to working from home environments. Majority of our meetings have been held via Teams and with the mask mandate being relaxed this Friday, we may see some return to normal practices. CSWA are starting to ramp up our regional travel plans again and will be in Broome at the end of May, hosting a Health and Wellbeing workforce planning session.

https://mailchi.mp/2a5aafc33e7a/cswa-newsletter-april-16050550

The last couple of months have proven a busy time for the team at Community Skills WA including regional consultations in Karratha, Albany and Kununurra. Although online platforms provide fantastic opportunities to be connected with our stakeholders across WA, these can never replace meeting face to face (masks on of course) in a local community to gain a genuine understanding of issues and challenges in our sectors.

https://mailchi.mp/5fee9327786a/cswa-newsletter-mar-2022

Whilst 2022 will present many significant challenges for the Community Services, Health and Education sectors, there continues to be examples of innovative approaches to workforce development, new training initiatives and amazing collaborations that we believe are worth sharing.

https://mailchi.mp/b65515e20207/cswa-newsletter-feb-2022

CSWA hosted a webinar on 14 March 2022,  during which the Department of Training and Workforce Development provided an overview of the migration streams and programs currently available. We would like to thank DTWD for their presentation and input as well as all that were able to attend. A recording of the session is available via this link.

CSWA Migration Webinar-20220314_100230-Meeting Recording.mp4