The Government’s commitment to support literacy and numeracy training in the workplace is a strong signal from Government on recognising the importance of upskilling, reskilling and increasing productivity alongside their commitment to address the challenges around the future of work, says Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Leeann Watson.

Launched this morning, the new funding will commit $14.5 million over four years meaning the Government will contribute nearly $45 million to the employer-led workplace literacy and numeracy fund between 2019 and 2022.

"We know one of the biggest challenges for business is having access to a skilled workforce and it is encouraging to see the importance which has been placed on ensuring businesses have the ability to develop their existing employee base."

"Lifelong learning gives employees the opportunity to continue with their personal development, enabling them to step into higher-level roles or learning new skills that will carry them through different jobs and industries. It also gives the employer the ability to increase productivity and reduce overall labour costs, meaning that re-training and helping to support people in work and re-deployment is a priority now more than ever."

Ms Watson says that as well as re-skilling our current workforce, it is also vitally important that the education sector is geared up and aligned with the changing nature of work and be open to learning new skills.

"All employees that will contribute to our future workforce must have strong literacy, language and numeracy skills and increasingly need skills of communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and being digitally savvy. To ensure we have a fit-for-purpose workforce, we also need to provide young people with skills to ensure they are work-ready."

Ms Watson says in order to be productive, businesses also need a supportive business environment with policy that supports and enables business growth and development.

"This is an area in which we continue to work with Government to help shape a productive workforce for the future."

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