The Leadership Role of Industry Training Organisations: From Policy to Practice

Abstract

Industry training is designed and driven by industry, and concentrates on workplace learning that raises skills and boosts competitive advantage for busness.¹ The 41 Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) are charged with setting skill standards for their industries, and with developing and making arrangements for the delivery of training, and its monitoring and assessing, in order that trainees attain the required skill standards. The increasing maturity and success of the industry training system is reflected in a recent addition to the Industry Training Act, This requires Industry Training Organisations to provide ‘leadership within the industry on matters relating to skill and training needs by: identifying current and future skill needs; developing strategic training plans to assist the industry to meet those needs; and promoting training that will meet those needs to employers and employees’. In order to assist ITOs to develop the capability to meet these requirements, funding was made available from the Tertiary Education Commission’s Innovations and Development Fund for participations ITO’s to develop an Industry Skills Strategy. This paper presents the approaches that two ITOs have taken in fulfilling their future skill needs strategic planning.