Transcript No Slide Title

Workplace Research Centre
Going with the grain?
Skills and Sustainable Business Development
Key finding and policy directions arising for a project commissioned by
the NSW Board of Vocational Education & Training by
Chris Briggs, Mark Cole, Justine Evesson, Kate Gleeson, John Buchanan
(Workplace Research Centre, University of Sydney)
Grahame Larcombe, (Strategic Economics)
Hugh Saddler, (Energy Strategies)
ASHRR Annual Conference, August 2007
Workplace Research Centre
Overview
1. Questions and method
2. Why change is necessary
 the reality of global warming
3. NSW’s Greenhouse policy challenge:
 Overcoming the impasse at national level
4. Climate change, innovation and skills
 Sustainability as a unifying theme?
5. The future of work and skill
 Different cross currents
6. Policy implications and recommendations
7. Conclusion
 Building on the sustainability- innovation – skill nexus
Workplace Research Centre
1. Aim, objective and method
Aim: understand relationships between skill, energy, innovation & industry policy
Objective: generate skills policy options in context of this policy mix
Guiding concepts:
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Climate change => sustainable development

Industry led-skills policy
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How sustainability can make skills agencies more relevant
How State government policy can drive demand
Insight from literature and the field

Greenhouse gas emission and energy policy frameworks(Ch 2)
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Drivers of change (ch 3), especially leading Australian Corporates (Ch4)
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Empirical studies of the connections:
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Renewable energy domain (Ch 5)
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The built environment (Ch 6)
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Place-based networks (Ch 7)
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The nexus between climate change, innovation and skill (Ch 8)
Policy implications and recommendations (Ch 9)
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2.
Why change is necessary: -the reality of global warming
Four drivers behind structural adjustment to low-carbon economy
1.
Deepening climate change, economic costs and insurance sector
increasingly aware of the risk
2.
New regulatory frameworks for carbon pricing
3.
Sustainability of business models increasingly integrated into risk
assessments/investment calculation of capital markets

4.
Especially institutional investors
Emerging international framework for investment and business
incorporates sustainability
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Mechanisms: regulatory instruments, global supply chains and
product assessment
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3. NSW’s Greenhouse policy challenge: impasse at national level


Is global warming a problem?
Different options to address problem:
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Big Science: eg clean coal, nuclear power

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Stop problem at source: price appropriately
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Problem: Commonwealth failure to do this=> allows perverse market
incentives to continue
State Govt no choice but to rely on limited policy initiatives
 In some domains State Govt can directly shape demand

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Problem: solution costly and technologies yet to be proven
Eg solar hot water heaters
Importance of NSW Greenhouse Plan (Nov 2005): key reference
point for whole of government approach to the problem
But how will necessary changes be achieved?
 Lessons from recent literature on innovation
Workplace Research Centre
4. Climate change, innovation + skills: sustainability as unifier?
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Innovation:
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Is key to competitiveness
Involves new creations of economic significance, material + intangible
Two models
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Traditional (linear) – conceptualisation => R+D =>proto-types=>
commercial application =>adoption and diffusion=> scale economies
Learning/knowledge economy – continuous improvement involving users,
suppliers, researchers and producers interacting (eg.West)


key: learning by doing and learning by using – feedback throughout networks
of production/service provision vital to improvements
Link to sustainability: firms, households and individuals need to
continually find ways of saving energy

Example: new residential communities – requires developers, builders and
trades/production workers to find solutions at design, planning, procurement,
construction, installation and maintenance stages. In addition, consumers need to
know what to request and how to use new arrangements
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5.
The future of work and skill
Different cross currents in the way jobs and new demands
for skill are being defined in light of the above trends
(a) Training for Green Jobs – the case of renewable energy
(b) The Greening of Old Jobs - the case of the Built Environment
(c) New Skill Formation Arrangements - the role of place based
networks
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(a) Training for green jobs – (or diffusing sustainability across
the life cycle?)
Projections of renewables as energy source in 2050 if 60% target met:
20% of Australia’s energy supply
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Already extreme shortages of: solar water installers, site designers
for wind turbines
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Problems in providing skills:
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‘lumpy’, stop-start demand due to energy and industry policy
Developing labour in thin markets
One renewable energy training centre (learn from inter-state)
-
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Address different market segments
Significant on-line as well as face-to-face elements
Target Asia-pacific market as well as Australian market
BUT - Green jobs only one, relatively small source of future training
demand (e.g. wind power directly employs less than 1,000)
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(b) The Greening of Old Jobs: the Built Environment
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Why the built environment is so important
NSW State level policy is extensive and important for sustainability
Project findings
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NSW State Govt policy to date has been powerful agent for innovation
New training capacity needed for emergence of knowledge workers in
unexpected places:
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Some occupations need significant up-skilling
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Eg plumbers – training limited and usually not provided by TAFE’
Some skill shortages are limiting energy policy options
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Facilities managers and associated personnel
Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) engineers and operators
Eg skilled installers of solar hot water
key issue for medium to long term in this domain:
‘design/project management led’ approach
vs ‘general workforce upskilling’ in sustainability cognition & capabilities
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(c) The role of place based networks
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Local ecologies and need for variations on standardised systems is
driving development of more place based networks of learning
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Take at least four different forms:
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Lead organisation and supply chain model: e.g. Toyota, Landcom
Brokered, highly focused firm to firm learning network: 3CBDs,SmithfieldWetherill Park Clean Production Partnership
Multi-sectoral region-wide learning network: e.g. Sustainable Newcastle
Brokered, regional integrated sector learning model: e.g. Liverpool
Industry Network Construction (LINC).
Challenges for policy:
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How can formal system link better with these networks?
Who should drive this?
Can public policy nurture and improve operation of such networks?
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(d) Implications for TAFE
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Few positive achievements reported by wide range of informants
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Often where achievements established they were subsequently
undermined by funding model/arrangements
One very promising lead on where TAFE could go is provided in a
comprehensive, unpublished in-house paper on sustainability and the
built environment (see next slide)
Key leads from the research on new directions for TAFE
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Move beyond ‘school on hill’ model to becoming better embedded in new
learning networks
Investigate establishing a Sustainability Design Centre
Investigate promoting Ecological Sustainable Design and Construction
(ESDC) principles throughout all course offerings associated with B+C
A ‘Greening of TAFE’ campaign
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How TAFE NSW would assist in the development and diffusion of Ecologically Sustainable
Design and Construction (ESDC) practices: A Model derived from Moore (2004)
Champions at senior management level drive the process. They commit to and resource networks of support
within and beyond TAFE NSW to achieve success
Standing committee chaired by General Manager TAFE Business
comprising relevant Managers in Institutes and Curriculum Centres –
This Committee builds and supports networks within and beyond TAFE
Review Training
Package Limitations
Improve flows of
knowledge from outside
expertise (eg CRC)
Build cross sectoral links
in education (school, HE
and RTOs)
Promote joint R&D and
articulation opportunities
1.
Capacity to meet ‘new market’ opportunities – primarily determined by State Government regulation and policy
2.
PD and Recruitment – staff with technical expertise in ESDC capable of achieving change.
3.
ESDC paradigm for all construction/property services and related curriculum
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6.
Policy implications and recommendations
(a) Three threshold questions
1. Energy policy: is there a climate change problem that requires a
thoroughgoing policy response?
2. Industry policy: how will the innovation necessary to achieve
change emerge?
3. Skills policy issue: how will the skills necessary for more
sustainable practices be developed and
deployed?
=> focus on training provisions vs nurturing of healthy skill ecosystems that underpin sustainable economic development
SKILLS FOR SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT:
Threshold issues and their implications for education and training policy
1. Threshold
1.
Energy Policy
Issue
No: Leave it to nature and
the market to sort out
2.
Is there recognition that climate
change is a problem that
requires a policy response?
Yes: Policy changes needed
to induce changed practices
to limit disruptions later on
Threshold
Innovation Policy
Issue
2.
Big Science/
Design led/
Professions led
3.
4.
Threshold skills
policy issue
Implications
for education
training
and skills policy
Healthy Skill Eco-systems
that nurture sustainable
business development
How will the innovation
necessary to achieve
changes emerge?
Broader diffusion of sustainability
understandings and skills will require
initiatives for:
•cognition for sustainability
•greening of established jobs
•support for new categories of work
3.
Ad hoc opportunities for
new skill formation
offerings will arise
sporadically
Education & Training
needed for professionals
& para professionals,
especially researchers and
project managers
How will the skills necessary for more
sustainable practices be developed
and deployed?
•Approaches will vary by domain and
within domains by place
Example: Built Environment
- Role of Domain MOU, govt/led
if necessary
- Role of Broker/Intermediary
- Role of TAFE
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6.
Policy implications and recommendations
(b) Recommendations
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Energy policy: benchmarking government agencies sustainability
practices
Industry policy: clarifying roles and increasing the number of innovation
agents
Skills policy: upgrading both training practices and skill ecosystems
The policy mix: planning and integrating initiatives
Institutional capacity: nurturing a new network of skill and business
development intermediaries.
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7. Conclusion
Our findings highlight:
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The necessity for change
That the issues of sustainability, innovation and skills are
intimately connected
Our policies recommendation ‘go with the grain’ and propose that
these connections be recognised and consolidated

Not just for the environment

Also important of decent jobs and industry renewal.