Nurturing existing talent could ease our skills shortage

Those of us?involved in?public works have known for quite?some time that?our sector?is at risk of running out of skilled professionals, particularly asset managers.?

In?2018, Local Government NSW (LGNSW)?revealed?in its?Workforce and Future Skills Report?that asset managers?ranked?sixth on?the?list of the top 10 professional occupations with a skills shortage.?Since then, the?situation has grown more serious.??

LGNSW’s recent?NSW Local Government Priorities?report, issued in the wake of the 2021-2022 State Budget,?found that?four in five?NSW councils are experiencing skills shortages in engineering, asset management and/or planning.?

In the past, Australia has used?immigration?to deal with skills shortages across a range of sectors. But with?the Delta variant prolonging the pandemic and keeping our borders closed, that option is?currently?off the table.?

Meanwhile, the?Coalition?is preparing to deploy the $17?billion?in infrastructure funding it announced in its recent Budget.?IPWEA applauds?this?investment, but?we ask: who will?bring these projects to reality and manage the assets?once they are built??

The answer: our existing?workers. Rather than import talent or?search endlessly for qualified Australians, we?can upskill?the people who work for our councils and?who?understand our world.??

This approach?served me well?in?my previous?career, when?I coached?professional rugby.?While many clubs?were looking?outside their own walls to recruit players, I made it a priority to develop youngsters who were involved in?our?club at the amateur level.?

It took time and patience?to get them ready to perform, but it paid dividends. We?established a talent pipeline for?the?club that made us self-sufficient and produced excellent players who were more loyal?to us?than those from elsewhere.??

Look for?employees with potential?

Australian councils have?successfully used this technique, too. Recently, I heard about a council in Adelaide that decided to train one of its most competent gardeners to manage a team of his peers.??

He performed so well?as a manager?that the council asked?him if he wanted to?asset-manage the entire parks portfolio. He said:?“But I haven’t got a clue about asset management.”?So, the council enrolled him in an IPWEA training course.??

Now that he’s trained up, the employee is doing a phenomenally good job managing the council’s park assets. The knowledge he?acquired?as a?gardener and team leader, combined with his subsequent training, have given him an edge.?

Other councils struggling to find qualified asset managers could benefit greatly from this approach.?It’s about looking within your organisation and identifying those employees with potential, then pushing them up the value chain.?

Don’t get too fixated on finding people who already have related qualifications. IPWEA’s Education Pathway has no barriers to entry, so you can train your most promising employees from any department.?

The Federal Government has a role to play here, too.?Its?recent?commitment?to infrastructure projects needs to be matched by an investment in training.?

There is still time to avert a skills crisis, but it will require new ways of thinking. Now it’s up to governments?to rise to the occasion.?