Apprenticeships, Employment & Training Provider | VERTO
VERTO is an award winning, not-for-profit organisation assisting businesses and individuals with all their apprenticeship, employment and training needs. Our expertise covers a range of areas including Aboriginal services, Australian apprenticeships services, disability services, employment services and vocational training to help businesses, individuals and local industry to thrive. Our mission is to positively impact the lives of individuals and communities and we’ve built a track record of exemplary customer service over 35 years, built around an ethical approach.You'll find the team in over 40 locations across New South Wales.
How can we help?
Changing work: VET is vital in filling the gap
By Ron Maxwell - CEO
We live in a time when the nature of work is ever changing. The pace of this change makes it difficult for many areas of the economy to keep up, especially as technology shifts the very nature of what we call ‘work’.
For many Australians, these changes can seem daunting, and it's incumbent upon our education sector to respond quickly, and efficiently, by supporting both businesses and employees to navigate a changing world.
At the 2019 VERTO Employee Conference, I listened to our keynote speaker, Dr Keith Suter, discussing the future view of our economy and how the education sector, VET included, needs to adapt to service future business needs. It was a thought-provoking presentation, and one area that really got me thinking was the rise of the ‘gig’ economy.
The gig is changing
The gig economy refers to those workers that are shunning the traditional 9-5 working role, in favour of gig based ‘jobs’, and it’s a great example of how technology is reshaping our workforce. The most often quoted of these is the rise of Uber and its copycat competitors; drivers can work when they want, at times that suit them, for as long as they want.
It’s not just ride sharing; it’s happening across a range of industries, such as marketing, graphic design, sales, trades, and many more. If you had looked a few short years ago, this 'freelance' model would have been an outlier and something of a novelty. Now, it’s everywhere.
In order to support both businesses and individuals to make the most of the opportunities and address the challenges of this new order, it’s not just the workforce that needs to adapt, it's the many structures that support it. Training, education and legislation all have a role to play, but as it stands today, many of these structures are struggling to keep up.
Traditional options being left behind
This struggle to adapt has the potential to create issues when it comes to economic growth. One thing that our future economy requires is agility, the ability to move rapidly as industry requires us to change how we are educating our workforce.
The rapid pace of change requires shorter, sharper and more focused education options that offer the right mix of theory and technical skills. Education must be lifelong and continue throughout a person's career to face ever-evolving challenges.
Governments can’t respond to this need alone. We often see scenarios where industry requires a new solution and by the time our education sector has the opportunity to respond, the need has changed again.
This is happening across the sector; Universities are beset by the same problems. In a fast moving world, how do we keep training and skills at the level required?
VET has a role to play
It's not just a government challenge; we all have a role to play. The VET sector is well placed to respond – retraining and upskilling Australians to meet the shifting needs of our workforce.
This is particularly true in the private sector, where we can respond quickly to changing trends and fill the skills gap as necessary. Organisations like VERTO are vital to respond to growing skill shortages and it's why keeping a balance of public and private providers is important.
Collaboration is vital
I've talked before about the need for our public and private education providers to collaborate, share resources and help our workforce get the right mix of skills. In a world of constant disruption, this is more critical than ever.
We need to ensure all Australians have access to the right educational opportunities across university and the VET sector. Rather than looking at them in isolation, we need to look at how the sector as a whole can provide the mix of theoretical learning and on-the-job technical skills to thrive.
The reality is that this trend of fast paced change is going to continue. By working together across both the public and private education sectors, we are in a much better position to address the needs of industry and provide Australians with the right opportunities to keep pace with change.
Fee-Free Traineeships are here commencing 1 January, 2020
There’s never been a better time to start a traineeship in NSW. The NSW Government is paying the course cost for 70,000 new traineeships – meaning trainees undertaking a government funded traineeship course no longer face a student fee of up to $1000.
Traineeships are a great career pathway. They combine on-the-job training with formal study to give you the skills and experience employers are looking for. Traineeships generally take around one to two years to complete, and trainees earn a salary while they learn.
Are you interested in hiring a trainee, or signing up for a traineeship yourself? Contact VERTO on 1300 4 VERTO or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Back to basics: Are we failing our youth on education?
Ron Maxwell - CEO
I've written many times about the need for overhaul in our education sector. There are many reasons why and I’ve often argued that education reform needs to be a priority at both State and Federal government levels.
What’s troubled me recently is the apparent lack of focus on the ‘basics’ i.e. the focus on core skills that will enable our school leavers to be successful, both in the next stage of their education journey and in the workforce. It led me to the question: Are we failing the next generation when it comes to their future employment?
Education is crucial
We all know the value of a good education. What’s troubling is the apparent lowering of Australia’s results in areas such as maths and English. While the education curriculum needs to be broad to cover all the skills and talents our future workforce needs, there’s no doubt that the ‘core’ skills sets need to be a major focus.
It’s something I often hear lamented amongst the business community: That young Australians lack some of those core skills required to be successful in the workforce. That is something that should worry us all.
The reality is that we are now part of a global workforce and our children will be competing for employment opportunities not just in a local or even Australian based market. The knock-on effect of our youth emerging from the education system without strong fundamental skills means that businesses will need to find skills elsewhere, something I as a parent do not want to see. It leaves us open to a growing cohort of disadvantage, with a growing group of young Australians finding it hard to find employment.
This competition for employment means that those without strong fundamental skills can be left behind. In the VET sector we often see this and run courses to help bridge the gap; but is that the only answer?
Rapid change reduces our time to adapt
Another factor is the speed of change we’re seeing in all industries today. Technology is disrupting many sectors and the speed of that disruption is new. In the past the time to adapt to changes in the labour market were such that you could transition a workforce over time. Those timeframes have been eroded, meaning that adaptability is a core skill our youth needs.
That focus on being resilient to change is a core skill for employment. There’s a need in our school system to recognise that and help prepare school leavers for a future where not just multiple jobs, but multiple careers will be a reality. As parents, we have a role too in ensuring that our children embrace adaptability and are resilient enough to know that there will be a need to constantly update and reassess their skills throughout their careers.
How do we change?
For me, there are a number of areas we could concentrate on now to help alleviate the challenge.
While funding and the right policies always have a role to play, an overarching review of our education sector is crucial. It’s not just a ’get back to basics’ discussion. While that needs to be part of it, and rightly so, there also needs to be a focus on how we educate our school leavers better to access career opportunities. For example, I cannot understand why we don’t consult employers as a part of this process. They could easily have a voice in helping government understand the core skills our graduates are lacking. For me, that has to be part of the solution.
Secondly, we need to keep working on the balance between university and VET. For too long VET has been seen as the poor cousin and we need to educate our school leavers on the advantages of careers in this space. These careers need those fundamental skills as well, so it’s a win-win for all levels of tertiary education if we work together to better prepare school leavers for those next steps.
And finally, everyone in the community has a role to play, especially those of us who are parents. Talk to your kids about their future, help them build those core resilience and adaptability traits I mentioned above. On a personal level, it’s something that I have discussed with my children, in particular my son who is currently completing tertiary education. We openly discuss that technology is a disrupter and how he can best prepare himself for the future workforce. In a way, it helps in rationalising change and understanding that it’s ok to embrace it. My hope is that it helps him to find the right career option.
VERTO services come full circle for Wisam
Wisam approached VERTO back in 2016 after two previous unsuccessful attempts at completing an apprenticeship. Knowing that keeping on top of his studies was crucial to being successful, Wisam contacted the VERTO Sydney team to help him back on the road to finding his passion.
With VERTO’s support, Wisam found an employer that used a 1-on-1-style approach, which worked best for him. His hard work and determination led him to become a fully qualified tradesman.
Fast-forward 7-months and his VERTO consultant Steve received a phone call from Wisam who had just established his own business, Kings Electrical Group. Steve and the team were excited to see the progress Wisam had made in such a short space of time and his desire to help out a jobseeker.
“I was surprised when he called me a couple weeks ago and said ‘Steve, I have my own company now, I want an apprentice to join me’,” Steve explained. Wisam has recently signed-up Ahmed to join him as an apprentice. Wisam and Steve have both spoken to Ahmed about the importance of TAFE, keeping on top of his studies and logging work during his apprenticeship.
“I made sure when Ahmed started with me that he was to be logging his work for TAFE on a weekly basis for me to sign off on,” Wisam said, “I wish someone had done that for me when I first started.”
Wisam places great importance on his new apprentice learning from the mistakes he made in his employment journey and is keen to see Ahmed, with VERTO’s support, succeed in finishing his apprenticeship.
Copyright © VERTO Ltd 2019 |
Site Information | Privacy Policy |
Board Portal | Staff Portal
Website by agenda