National Conference

August 2005 saw our inaugural National Conference, with the theme “Attract, Train & Retain”.  Following on from its success, we are planning to hold our second National Conference in August 2006, again at the Swissôtel, in Sydney.  Given the continuing concerns in our industry sectors about the quality and quantity of well trained people, the theme will be “Grow & Maintain the Workforce”.  We estimate that between 150,000 to 200,000 new recruits will be required to satisfy the needs of the resources and infrastructure industries in the next 5 years.  This highlights the need for industry to be proactive in developing targeted strategies to establish the policies and framework to attract an appropriate number of new recruits to grow and maintain their workforce.

Canberra Lunch with Senior Politicians

Members of the Board of RIISC met with more than 30 “Friends of Resources & Infrastructure Industries” at Parliament House on Thursday, 13 October 2005.  Showing his keen interest for RIISC, the Minister for Vocational Education and Technical Education Minister Assisting the Prime Minister, the Hon. Gary Hardgrave, MP attended and spoke at the luncheon.  Led by the Chair (Ray Barker) and Deputy Chair, Leanne Gordon, the RIISC Directors took the opportunity to present industry’s case to those Members of Parliament with a particular interest in our Industry Sectors.

Combined with a luncheon hosted by the Hon Barry Haase, MP (Kalgoorlie), Ray Barker provided an overview of the roles, functions and planned activities of RIISC.  He went on to answer a series of questions covering a wide range of issues of interest to the MPs and included the probable future workforce required by the industry and strategies to attract and retain new recruits.

The Hon. Wilson Tuckey, MP in his vote of thanks noted the Chairman’s frank and open answers to questions posed from the “floor”.

In her closing remarks, Leanne Gordon noted the value of the exercise for all those involved and looked forward to the next occasion when we can report on the outcomes of the planned activities over the next one year.

Opening of WA Regional Office

The RIISC WA Regional office was officially opened on Thursday 17 November.  The opening was officiated by Mr Norman Marlborough MLA, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education & Training.  Mr Marlborough, who has a background as a tradesman, had an excellent appreciation of the value of Training Packages and competency based education and training.  He also highlighted some innovative work being done in the resources sector in WA with regard to traineeships.

Civil Construction AQF 4, 5 & 6

This project is progressing as per the schedule.  Validation workshops have been held across all states and territories with excellent feedback from participants.  Final draft Units of Competency and Qualifications will be available on the RIISC website from 13 Dec 05 for public comment.  The Training Package will be submitted to DEST for endorsement in February 2006.

Coal Seam Methane

The development of the CSM units is progressing well.  The Working Party will review and sign off on the Coal Seam Methane Gas Drilling Units of Competency.  Final draft Units of Competency will be available on the RIISC website from 12 Dec 05 for public comment.  The new units will be submitted to DEST for endorsement and inclusion in the Drilling Training Package DRT03 in February 2006.

BCC03 Learning Resources Scoping Project

RIISC will shortly be undertaking a Scoping Project to identify the support material needs of BCC03.  Many RTOs who deliver the current BCC03 find it difficult to obtain support materials and the industry is concerned that national consistency of outcomes is not necessarily being met.  With the onset of the AQF 4 – 6 qualifications in the package during the early part of 2006, it remains critical that materials will also be needed to be developed for these new qualification levels.  The project

will be managed by Ray Hutt, RIISC’s Southern Region Manager and will have a timeframe of 3 months commencing mid December 2005.

The project will also identify projected costs, funding sources, IP and future maintenance issues.

It is expected that development of national resources would follow immediately from the project and thus provide materials available to all RTOs.

RIISC Web Site

After some minor teething problems, our new web site is in full operation.  There are still further improvements to follow.  We trust that they will make information search easier