CHANGES NEEDED FOR SMALL BUSINESS

From Peter Strong, CEO of the Council of Small Business of Australia. Over 96% of businesses are small. Over 60% of workplaces employ less than 5 people. Over 7 million people earn a living from small businesses. Yet the workplace relations systems have been designed for the 4% of businesses who have pay clerks and experts. If we want improvements in productivity and innovation we must change the way we approach workplace relations. All sides of politics need to agree on a simple system for the small workplace. We need a system that isn't based on philosophy and vested interests - we need a system that is based on reality and people. WorkChoices and FairWork Australia are and were systems based on outmoded beliefs about the way the workplace should operate and behave. One system was designed by big business to suit their belief in what a workplace should look like and the other system is designed by the union movement with the support of big business, to reflect their needs. In the end these systems, their development and implementation (and their eventual dismantling and reconstruction into another system) has failed everyone except the vested interests. We should accept the reality of our working world and have two systems: one for big business and its experts and one for small business. We firstly need a small business award that is easy to understand and can provide certainty to all people in the small workplace.

Regional Development Victoria -

Where Will the Jobs Be?

Accommodation, Cafes and Restaurants Industry
Employment prospects in the accommodation, cafes and restaurants industry are average.
The recent economic downturn has negatively affected the industry. The industry’s services are more related to leisure and entertainment than basic necessities, therefore demand responds quickly to the changing economic conditions. Demand for the industry’s services is expected to decrease in 2009 and 2010.
The longer term outlook is positive for the industry. Growth in the industry is expected to recover from 2010, and employment is forecast to increase by over 8 per cent by 2015. Chefs, waiters, fast food cooks, restaurant and catering managers and elementary service workers are expected to be the fastest growing occupations in the industry in the next five years.

Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Industry
Employment prospects in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry are above average.
Despite the current economic downturn, expectations remain positive in the industry for 2009 and 2010 due to stable demand conditions. Demand for the industry’s output is mainly determined by basic needs and therefore likely to be less sensitive to the deteriorating economic conditions.
While employment in the industry may decline slightly due to the downturn, it is expected to increase moderately within the next five years. Livestock farmers, skilled agricultural workers, shearers, farm overseers and finance associate professionals are expected to be the fastest growing occupations in the industry in the next five years.

Building and Construction Industry
Employment prospects in the building and construction industry are average.
Following ten years of strong growth, activity is expected to decrease in the industry in 2009 and 2010 due to the effect of the economic downturn. The industry is expected to recover in the longer term due to underlying strong housing demand, government initiatives and the improvement of the global financial markets.
Employment is expected to increase moderately from 2011. In the next five years, employment of business and administration associate professionals, engineering, distribution and process managers, transport drivers, fabrication engineering and wood tradespersons is expected to increase the most relative to other occupations in the industry.

Electricity, Gas and Water Industry
Employment prospects in the electricity, gas and water industry are above average.
The outlook for the industry is positive for 2009 and 2010 due to stable demand conditions. The industry provides essential services and utilities for businesses and communities, therefore activity and employment is not expected to be significantly affected by the effects of the economic downturn.
Employment in the industry is expected to increase by around 5.5 per cent during 2009 and 2010. In the next five years, employment of engineering, distribution and process managers, engineering tradespersons, computer professionals and business associates is expected to increase the most relative to other occupations in the industry.

Government Administration and Defence Industry
Employment prospects in the government administration and defence industry are above average.
The government administration and defence industry currently provides 2.5 per cent of the Victorian economy’s output.
The employment outlook is positive in the sector, as employment is largely determined by Government policies rather than external market factors. The economic downturn has not significantly influenced the industry.
Employment in the Victorian government administration and defence industry has increased by around 25 per cent during the past ten years. The number of people employed in the industry is expected to increase steadily from 2009 by around 13 per cent over the next five years. Urban and regional planners, and business and information professionals are expected to be the fastest growing occupations in the industry in the next five years.

Health and Community Services Industry
Employment prospects in the health and community services industry are above average.
It is expected that activity will increase in the industry during 2009 and 2010 and it is not likely to be further significantly affected by the economic downturn. The longer term outlook is also positive for the industry. Demographic changes predict increasing demand for health and community services. It is expected that because of the aging population and the recent spike in births, demand for maternal health, childcare and aged care services will continue to rise.
Employment in the industry is expected to continue rising from 2009 onwards, by over 5.4 per cent in the next five years. Employment growth in the community services sector is expected to be higher than in the health sector. Personal care and nursing assistants, nurse managers, childcare workers and welfare and community workers are expected to be the fastest growing occupations in the industry in the next five years.

Transport and Storage Industry
Employment prospects in the transport and storage industry are above average.
Following a period of substantial growth, the industry has experienced some decline during the past quarters. The transport and storage industry provides services to every other sector in the economy, and the effects of the economic downturn have impacted on the industry. However, the longer term outlook is very solid for the industry.
Employment in the industry has gradually increased from 94,500 to around 113,000 during the past ten years. Employment is expected to continue to rise in the next five years at an annual average rate of 1 per cent. In the next five years employment in the road transport sector is expected to increase the most, followed by rail transport. In this time, employment of transport managers, supply and distribution managers, transport and despatching clerks, and truck, delivery, bus and tram drivers is expected to increase the most relative to other occupations in the industry.

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Learning for the Jobs of the Future

Dr Peter Ellyard

Dr Peter Ellyard futurist, strategist and a leading international speaker.

"The secret to a successful life is to understand what is one’s destiny to do, and to do it." Henry Ford

Dr Ellyard spends a great deal of time working with young people on their career options for the future. When they ask what they should study in their tertiary education he tells them to follow their heart and study what interests them, not what they think will generate a job. It is more important to be a committed lifelong, learner-driven learner than to know particular facts relating to one kind of work or another.

It is also pointless to prepare oneself for one of the current crop of job categories unless one expects to be fulfilled by doing this. To study for a job because the job seems to provide economic security or status, but without passion for the work entailed by that job, will create considerable misery and will also undermine the habits needed for lifelong learner-driven learning which is so critical for thriving in the long term. In the early 21st century the workplace is changing more rapidly than ever before. The pace of technological and social change means that work skills are being made redundant at a faster rate. From Dr Ellyard’s observations and discussions with colleagues, it seems that up to 50 per cent of the skills required in the newer, knowledge based industries become redundant every three to five years. If one looks at the rates of globalization and technological change and the development of tribalisation, which will lead to an increase in cultural customisation of products and services, it seems reasonable to deduce that in the next twenty-five years up to 70 per cent of all job categories are likely to change. Of this percentage, half of the existing job categories will disappear; the other half will consist of new jobs that do not yet exist. Other jobs will keep their present names but the nature of the work will change.

Technological change is one of the major reasons why workplace learning must be broadened from its traditional narrow base to the world of multiskilling. To maintain a robot, for example, it is necessary to know about mechanics, pneumatics, hydraulics, electronics and software engineering. All of these were individual disciplines and were the responsibility of individual workers, sometimes belonging to different trade unions. New technology is causing the traditional demarcations between skill areas to disappear, and the need to avoid technology-created demarcation disputes is one of the major reasons for the development of ‘super’ trade unions in the 1990s. The domains of electronic technologies and bio-technologies are also coalescing, as are the domains of the natural sciences, technologies and social sciences. Where these various domains overlap hybridization is occurring between them, and these areas of hybridization are now producing the greatest rates of innovation. Multimedia and learning technologies generally are a good example of this. In a world where cultural differences are often being celebrated, it is also likely that technologies will undergo greater degrees of cultural customisation: increasingly the domains of culture and technology are also overlapping.

Work-place learning will also be increasingly linked to career-path planning together with credentialling of work-place learning. Until now it has been appropriate to ask people about their current work. In the next decade it will be as relevant to ask people about what they are learning to become as to ask what job they do at present: ‘becoming’ will become as important as ‘being’. With this comes the introduction of increased work-place based learning and career-path planning. Ford pointed out in his letter that the next important component of all work-place learning would be the professionalisation of all employees. If a work place wants to thrive in the twenty-first century up to 20 per cent of all its resources should be devoted to learning, both individual and collective. The most successful businesses will be those that maximise organisational and individual learning, and good employees will be attracted to work places which offer this. Any work-place learning will need to incorporate the elements of the learning culture, including learner-driven, just-in-time and customised learning. Modern technology can deliver this to people in the work place.

Integrated enterprise learning assisted by personal development planning, with their links to adaptability, innovation and productivity, will become major components of successful work places in the early twenty-first century. These should be complemented by learner-driven, just-in-time learning aided by modern technology.

Dr Peter Ellyard’s list of the skills and capabilities which he believes young person will need to thrive in the years beyond 2020, to achieve wellbeing in this society includes:

• Developing a successful career path with an emphasis on job making rather than on job taking. This involves utilizing insight to determine one’s destiny, what is one’s aptitude and passion; foresight to understand emerging trends, opportunities and possibilities and being able to strategically position oneself in a 21st century industrial structure ; and hindsight to learn from one’s experiences, so as to inform one’s career and personal development.

• Being an enterprising innovative person, constantly seeking to do old things better and new things first. This requires a major focus on life/enterprise skills, and in continuously developing one’s own creativity and enterprise, and respecting it in others.
  

In many rural communities the ecological prosperity can be a major source of wealth generation. In economically poor urban communities, cultural prosperity can be used to create economic prosperity.

• Economic prosperity involves the promotion of emerging 21st century industries. Seventy percent of the industries, products and services of the year 2025 have yet to be invented. Almost all the new industries born in the 20th century were born in cities, and there they stay. New forms of connectivity means that we can now locate many emerging 21st century industries in rural communities. It also involves increasing the collective bargaining power which rural communities have with the external world.

Most young people in rural communities and in disadvantaged urban communities who are motivated and knowledge seeking will leave these communities as soon as they can, never to return.

However the education system can and should play a major role in enduring that the capabilities of young people in rural communities are of the kind needed to enable them to stay in rural communities and lead these communities into a knowledge rich sustainably prosperous future . If this does not happen rural communities will decline even more and many will die all together. If we are to create sustainable prosperity in rural communities we must engender a population of innovators in these communities: people who are both creative and enterprising.

JobLink - Linking Students to Jobs

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Business and Defence Partnership

How military thinking can enhance business productivity

There are many benefits you can gain if your employees are Reservists. Reservists are smarter thinkers, problem solvers with team spirit to get on with the job. They are disciplined, motivated, highly focused and develop a range of skills that become second nature to them. It's qualities such as these that will contribute to your company succeeding in today's ever evolving business climate. What's more, by showing your support to your Reservist employees, the Employer Support Payment Scheme can provide financial assistance of more than $1000* per week, which may be used for offsetting the costs of releasing Reservists for duty and paying for replacement staff. Discover how your business can enhanced if your employees are Reservists, and learn about the benefits and obligations you have as an employer. With a range of other support services also available to you, you'll soon see how a Reservist can make all the difference.

Find out more - call 1800 803 485 or visit www.defence.gov.au/reserves

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*Conditions apply. Vist www.defence.gov.au/reserves for further details.