Reskilling Australia: a data-driven approach

The Future of Work Taskforce, established in the Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business identified that moving towards a skills-based approach to labour market analysis could help Australia respond to this changing demand for skills. On a practical level, we identified the need to answer questions including: – How can job seekers and workers make a quicker and smoother job transition as tasks and skills requirements change? – How can employers improve their workforce planning to get the required skills? – Can educational institutions monitor the skills market so course offerings can be adjusted quickly if required? – How can policy makers guide people from declining sectors into areas of growing employment demand, and target welfare interventions to support job seekers better? To answer these questions, we are exploring how analysis of large datasets using machine learning and other techniques can offer insights to improve labour market transitions. This has involved adapting for Australia the approach in the January 2018 report, Towards a Reskilling Revolution: A Future of Jobs for All, issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and collaborating with Boston Consulting Group and Burning Glass Technologies. This report summarises our work to-date developing the first Australian model to map transferability between occupations in the changing labour market of the future.