Linking careers, research and training - a pilot for the seafood industry

Funded Activity Summary

The seafood industry is currently facing significant workforce challenges. The South Australian workforce is ageing and needs to be replaced from a supply of available workers. This potential shortage of workers is compounded by the current situation where the seafood industry is competing with other industry sectors on the basis of potential earning capacity. Some seafood sectors can afford to compete with other industries (such as mining), whilst other sectors are unable to be competitive in the labour market.

Different strategies are needed to attract new people to the seafood industry. The images and marketing strategies to encourage young people to the seafood industry are not prominent, if used at all. People outside the industry struggle to understand the types of employment opportunities that exist in the industry, the skills required for the positions and how to get them.

Traditionally, workers in the seafood industry have not had their skills and knowledge recognised. Generally progression in a company has largely been due to the number of years that a person has been working for the company, and not necessarily how well the person performs the tasks. In addition, employees in the past have not been encouraged to gain skills and knowledge in more than one area within an enterprise. Therefore, the workforce challenge facing many seafood enterprises is upskilling our existing workforce that provides employees with a sense of where they fit in the business and their progression opportuities, as well as increasing the efficiency of the business and therefore profitability by having a more flexible workforce. The industry also needs to recognise that it has to be an attractive option for workers.

This project aims to assist both employees and create a greater level of understanding with seafood employers of how to address workforce challenges.

Objectives:
1. To develop career pathways with linked training programs.
2. To develop a process whereby seafood enterprises can use the most up-to-date research outcomes in their company training and operations.
3. To analyse the linking of career pathways, research and training over a season and identify possible improvements.
4. To develop materials that may guide other seafood enterprises through similar workforce issues.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 13-04-2009

End Date: 30-06-2011

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $98,750.00

Funder: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

There are no FoR codes available for this funding activity

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Community | Education | Processing & packaging

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