The Digital Skills Organisation (DSO) have released their final report, Growing Australia's Digital Workforce, as the work of their new organisation, Future Skills Organisation, launches. The report highlights four key assertions

1. Every person in the workforce now needs to have digital skills.
   
2. Simple skill descriptors will make it easier to describe the digital skills needed across the economy. The report identifies the need for digital experts, digitally enabled and digitally informed workers. 
   
3. A more flexible training system is required which can cope with the rapid pace of technological change. 
   
4. Teachers and trainers must be upskilled to deliver digital training across different qualifications. ​
   
   

The DSO was established in 2020 by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR, formerly Department of Education, Skills and Employment) as one of three industry-led, 3-year Skills Organisation Pilots, with a remit “to shape the national training system, testing innovative solutions to ensure digital training meets the skills needs of employers and builds Australia’s digital workforce”.The DSO subsequently won the contract to establish as one of ten Jobs and Skills Councils (JSCs) established by the Australian Government, and is now named FSO- Future Skills Organisation.
Access the report and learn more about the FSO here

The list of VET qualifications and their suitability for secondary students in 2024 is now available to access. This register offers industry advice for schools and registered training organisations. 

Access the register

Tourism WA is set to implement a new Cruise Tourism Strategic Plan with the aim of growing economic and employment outcomes for Western Australia. The strategy aims to:

• Secure new cruise lines to visit the state.
• Expand the itineraries of existing cruise ships already coming to the state
• Attract more seasonal home-ported vessels to call Fremantle home.  

Access the Strategic Plan

The Australian Department of Education have released an interim report on the Australian Universities Accord. The report follow's February's discussion paper, and reflects on extensive stakeholder engagement to present a vision for the future of Australia's higher education system. The report includes five recommendations for priority action (Section 1.5), and raises issues for further discussion to inform the Review’s Final Report.
Priority action recommendations include:

• Extend visible, local access to tertiary education by creating further Regional University Centres
  (RUCs) and establish a similar concept for suburban/metropolitan locations. 
• Cease the 50% pass rule, given its poor equity impacts, and require increased reporting on student
  progress.
• Ensure that all First Nations students are eligible for a funded place at university, by extending
  demand driven funding to metropolitan First Nations students.
• Provide funding certainty, through the extension of the Higher Education Continuity Guarantee
  into 2024 and 2025, to minimise the risk of unnecessary structural adjustment to the sector. 
• Through National Cabinet, immediately engage with state and territory governments and universities
  to improve university governance. 

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Access the report

Read analysis of the report:

• The Job-ready Graduates scheme for uni fees is on the chopping block – but what will replace it?
• Boosting regional, poor and Indigenous university students goal of major higher education reforms
• Universities respond to Australian Universities Accord Interim Report
• International talking points from wide-ranging interim Unis Accord report
  
• Universities Accord – Ai Group response
• Australian universities report ‘squibs a once-in-a-generation chance’ on research, science leader says
  
• Expert panel calls for broader access to universities
  

State and Federal governments have announced programs designed to support access to digital literacy training and education for First Nations Australians, including those living in remote communities across the country.
Federal Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O'Connor has announced a specific Indigenous stream to the Government Skills for Education and Employment (SEE) foundation skills program to improve literacy, numeracy, and digital skills. The redesign of the SEE program will provide more pathways for Australians to access training to improve their language, literacy, numeracy and digital skills. It is expected to support up to 2,000 First Nations people per year by 2026-27. From 1 July 2024, the program will focus on First Nations people, providing grants to Indigenous community-controlled organisations so they can partner directly with training providers. It will be delivered through First Nations organisations in partnership with TAFEs and other Registered Training Organisations or Adult and Community Education sector providers.
State Minister for Regional Development the Hon. Don Punch has meanwhile announced $50,000 funding for education sessions for up to 600 people to address an urgent need among Aboriginal seniors in regional and remote WA for digital literacy skills to help avoid being targeted with online scams and digital crime.
Research published recently by the Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII) found that while digital inclusion is improving, certain groups, including First Nations Australians, remain marginalised. The Closing the Gap framework includes a specific target that ‘By 2026, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have equal levels of digital inclusion’. ADII aims to produce data that creates measurables against this target.
Read Minister O'Connor's full media release
Read Minister Punch's full media statement
Explore the Australian Digital Inclusion Index

The Hon Brendan O'Connor, Federal Minister for Skills and Training, has officially announced the launch of five additional Jobs and Skills Councils (JSCs). Among the newly introduced Councils are the Future Skills Organisation (FSO), responsible for digital technologies and libraries, and SkillsEQuipped, which oversees industries within FutureNow's purview, including creative arts and culture, hospitality, and tourism.
In addition to their role in collaborating with stakeholders to facilitate the ongoing development of training packages, the JSCs will have a broader mandate to engage in comprehensive workforce planning discussions with stakeholders including industry representatives, labour unions, education and training leaders, as well as student advocates.
FutureNow has established connections with each JSC, ensuring coverage of its respective industry areas. It will continue to advocate for the interests of Western Australian stakeholders in these critical areas of work.
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Read Minister O'Çonnor's statement
Visit SkillsEQuipped
Visit Future Skills Organisation

Each year AusActive, the peak fitness body in Australia establish a survey for fitness professionals to provide their thoughts on the predicted key fitness trends. In 2023, for the first-time, training older adults hit the number one trend with functional fitness in second spot. 
The survey is now open for fitness industry professionals to vote for what they think the key 2024 trend will be. Voting closes 31st July 2023.

The WA Government have awarded the Australian Sport Technologies Network (ASTN) with funding to support WA sporttech start-up companies in attending the ASTN’s Entrepreneurship Education Program. This program has been designed to support entrepreneur's in developing their innovative sporttech projects and linking with private investors to build their capabilities in bringing these emerging projects to the sports industry. 
​Media release