Jobs and Skills Australia has released its Jobs and Skills Roadmap for Regional Australia, which provides an overarching strategic framework for Australia's regional jobs and skills system with the aim to enhancing the "equity, effectiveness and efficiency" of the system across Regional Australia.
This important work provides a framework that empowers stakeholders to work collaboratively in the jobs and skills system across Regional Australia. Australian Industry Group was represented by Head of Northern Australia on JSA’s Regional Advisory Committee, and through Dr Caroline Smith’s role on the Ministerial Advisory Board.
The Regional Roadmap highlights the unique needs of those living in non-metropolitan regions of Australia, for example, around 1 in 6 young people in Regional Australia are not in any form of employment, education or training. For those living in metropolitan areas of Australia, this is 1 in 10. The difference is stark.
With the Roadmap comes five vision principles, and ten design principles centred on consultation and alignment, service design and funding. They can be viewed here.
The design principles pose a series of questions for policymakers and stakeholders alike when developing those systems for regional Australia and are presented as "a starting point to stimulate policy thinking, rather than being prescriptive or limiting".
You can access a factsheet of the Regional Roadmap here or access the full report here.
Jobs and Skills Australia is seeking further feedback on phase 1 of the report through a public stakeholder submission process and roundtables across Regional Australia in the second half of 2025. A Phase 2 Report will be subsequently published by JSA to reflect this further engagement and feedback to.
For further information, visit the Jobs and Skills Roadmap for Regional Australia Consultation page.
