IBSA wins the battle for industry skills funding

IBSA is the Industry Skills Council responsible for administering national training in the graphic arts industry across all universities and educational institutions. The organisation was plunged into crisis when the Federal Government refused to confirm whether its funding would be continued beyond the end of the year, with the decision delayed well beyond the original due date at the beginning of July. But it is now confirmed the IBSA will continue to provide training services to the industry for at least another 15 months.

At the same time, the IBSA has emerged from the crisis with a vote of confidence from the Department of Education, Science and Training (DES). The skills council was independently assessed prior to the passing down of the funding decision and has been recognised by the DES as one of the “higher performing Industry Skills Councils.” The assessment also recognised IBSA as having a heavy work program with the most diverse portfolio of responsibilities out of all the different skills councils: it also takes care of the business services, financial services, ICT, cultural and education industries.

Sharon Coates, chief executive of the IBSA, says the decision from the Federal Government comes as a relief following the confusion of the past several months. But she has also expressed her frustration that in spite of the praise directed at the IBSA, the government has not made a stronger commitment to the set up of the Industry Skills Councils.

“We are certainly very pleased that the IBSA will continue in 2007, that we were valued and rated so highly by the industry. But we were disappointed that the decision did not also result in a stronger dedication to the Industry Skills Council system,” says Coates. “We were given neither a long-term commitment from the government or a clear unambiguous statement of support, which means we may face more uncertainty in the future.”

While the same format will remain in place for the Industry Skills Councils, the IBSA confirms there will likely be a number of reforms to the existing structures with the aim of increasing the relevance of the national training system. One of the most important changes will be a more active engagement with industry organisations and employers. The IBSA has confirmed it is seeking to forge stronger ties with Printing Industries to achieve this, but it also emphasises it will not be restricting these efforts to employer organisations.

“We are legitimate in our desire to work closely with Printing Industries, but we also want to make sure that we involve other parties such as employee organisations, including the unions, as well the companies themselves that are actually delivering the training,” she says.

Changes on the way for the IBSA

The IBSA is responsible for developing training solutions for the printing industry, as well as the business services, financial services, ICT, cultural and education industries. Sharon Coates claims that while this might initially seem like a disparate portfolio of sectors, it allows the organisation to take a cross-industry approach in its development of training solutions.

To illustrate, she points to the example of the ‘solution portal’ that is currently being expanded to include vendor qualifications in the printing industry. The portal matches up components of the IBSA’s Printing and Graphic Arts Training Package with programs offered by companies like Kodak, Ricoh, Heidelberg and CPI, among others.

The aim with the ‘solution portal’ is to assist with identifying skills gaps to ensure that appropriate top-up training is provided to employees. Additionally, individual job seekers and contract workers will be able to use the portal to compare the coverage of their current qualifications and identify options for extending their skills.

“The addition of printing and graphic arts qualifications to the mapping portal is an example of the benefits that can be gained by sharing knowledge and product developments across industries, as enabled by IBSA’s multi-industry coverage,” says Coates.