Minister Anne Aly launches sector roundtable tour

This Monday 8th August Minister for Early Childhood Education and Youth Anne Aly will hold the first of six stakeholder roundtable meetings ahead of the Albanese Labor Government’s Jobs and Skills Summit next month.

The Albanese Government’s goal is to build a bigger, better trained and more productive workforce; boost incomes and living standards; and create more opportunities for more Australians to get ahead and to reach their aspirations.

Minister Aly has launched herself into her new portfolios since being sworn in, and will be conducting several consultative roundtables with key stakeholders in the early childhood education and youth sectors across Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth.

The roundtables will cover both early childhood education and youth, with consultation sessions in Perth to be held north and south of the river.

The roundtables are a chance to bring stakeholders together after a whirlwind period of meetings across Australia with State and Territory Ministers, unions, peak bodies and on-the-ground service providers in every mainland State and Territory since Minister Aly was sworn in.

“The roundtables will be key to ensuring issues in the early childhood education and youth sectors are heard loud and clear at the Jobs and Skills Summit as our Government brings together Australians to shape the future of our jobs and skills market, and to create the opportunities for Australians to make a better life for them and their families” Minister Aly said.

The roundtable consultations will be an opportunity to bring together stakeholders and young people and tap into their collective knowledge and experience, giving them a clear opportunity to contribute to the Jobs and Skills Summit.

Attendees at the roundtables will include young people from diverse backgrounds, peak body representatives in the youth and early childhood education sectors, not-for-profit and for-profit early child education providers and youth service providers, family day care representatives, academic researchers and advocates, as well as unions.

Workforce shortages in early childhood education present a significant challenge. In the lead up to the summit, the roundtables will help explore high turnover of staff in the sector, difficulties attracting and training staff, and best practice models.

The roundtables will provide Young Australians an opportunity to feed their perspectives on the unique issues they face accessing and retaining meaningful employment, training and education into the discussion at the summit.

The summit builds on the Labor Government’s existing commitment to provide 465,000 Fee Free TAFE courses, including 45,000 new TAFE courses, in industries facing skills shortages including early childhood education.

Comments attributable to Minister Anne Aly:

“The jobs summit is an opportunity to change how we, as a society, value early childhood educators who play a vital role, not just for children and families but also the wider economy, and who deserve to be recognised and valued consistent with that critical role.”

“I’ll be ensuring that the lived experience of educators and families who know what the situation is on the ground will be heard loud and clear at the jobs summit.”

“Young Australians are facing complex challenges including barriers to workforce participation and increased casualisation of the workforce, and have told us they want the opportunity to engage on these issues and others that affect them. The Labor Government is committed to meaningful engagement with young Australians on the issues that matter most to them.”

“Labor’s commitments to expand access and affordability of early childhood education will also necessitate that the jobs summit looks at how we can expand the number of early childhood educators in Australia and support those currently in the industry.”

“The early childhood sector will also benefit from the Government’s commitment to improve workforce supply through Fee Free TAFE; additional university places; and the establishment of Jobs and Skills Australia to support workforce planning.“