Transform Peel workforce and skills needs analysis: final report

Transform Peel is a 35 year multi-stakeholder development program to establish an innovative primary industry hub comprising three initiatives: the Peel Food Zone, Peel Business Park and Peel Integrated Water Initiative. The initiative targets the generation of approximately 33,100 jobs and an annual economic output of $16 billion by 2050. It will therefore be important to ensure a ready supply of suitable human resources for full-scale operations. It will be important for local employment generation within the Peel region to meet Transform Peel's economic development imperative. Because of this, the Peel Development Commission, with other key partners recognised the need to investigate workforce needs and skills analysis to identify likely skills profiles, job pathways, and education, training and business support requirements for prospective employment generation through the Transform Peel initiatives. The study comprised a desktop analysis, preparation of a discussion paper and stakeholder engagement to gain insights to the current context, opportunities and constraints for workforce development in relation to Transform Peel. Throughout the study a total of 156 stakeholder engagements were undertaken in the form of face to face and telephone interviews, focus group discussions and online surveys.

The study found that across the Transform Peel initiatives and possible scenarios, the jobs created are likely to comprise a full range of skill levels and will depend on the businesses that establish themselves there. It is difficult to predict the exact jobs that will be generated as research indicates that approximately 65 per cent of the jobs in 2050 will be jobs that do not exist today. However, there were some common characteristics and skills that employers demand, that can be the focus of targeted workforce development. These include work readiness in terms of work ethic, attitudes, willingness to learn and communication, as well as basic skills and understanding in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and information communication technology (ICT). Other overarching trends relevant to Transform Peel are that the workforce will need to be generally higher skilled, as well as more multi-skilled and adaptable in a rapidly changing context.

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