NW Tasmanian Regional Training Demand Profile
March 2008
2
Skills Tasmania
NW Tasmania Regional Training Demand Profile
North West Tasmania Regional Training Demand Profile
© Skills Tasmania, 2008. All rights reserved.
This publication is copyright and further information or additional copies may be obtained from Skills Tasmania.
Note that the information, views and recommendations in this document have been obtained under contract from industry sources as part of Industry Advisory Arrangements; they may include data or information which has not been otherwise verified, and they should not be interpreted as being the views, intentions or policy of Skills Tasmania or the Tasmanian Government.
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Skills Tasmania
NW Tasmania Regional Training Demand Profile
Contents
Preface 1
Abbreviations 2
1. Summary - Key Points 3
2. Introduction 7
2.1. Geology and soils 7
2.2. The original owners 7
2.3. European settlement and land use history 8
3. The people 12
3.1. Population distribution and characteristics 12
3.2. Age structure and other selected demographic characteristics 13
3.3. Minority and disadvantaged population segments 18
3.3.1. Indigenous people in the North West 18
3.3.2. The young people in the North West 23
3.3.3. Women in the North West 25
3.3.4. The disabled in the North West 25
3.3.5. The aged in the North West 26
3.3.6. Migrants in the North West 27
3.4. Post-secondary educational participation rates 27
3.5. Socio-economic indexes for areas (SEIFA) 29
3.6. Conclusions 33
4. Profile of NW education and training delivery 34
4.1. Vocational Education and Training provision 34
4.2. Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 34
4.3. Number of Trainees compared to number of all students 37
4.3.1. How many students complete their qualification? 37
4.3.2. Where do the students come from? 37
4.3.3. Student satisfaction with their training outcomes 38
4.3.4. What do employers think of the VET system? 40
4.4. Conclusions: 41
5. The Labour Market 42
5.1. Unemployment and labour force participation 42
5.1.1. Tasmania 42
5.1.2. Mersey-Lyell 42
5.2. Labour market dynamics 53
5.3. The impact of ageing 54
5.3.1. Skill and labour shortages 56
5.3.2. Competition in a global labour market 56
5.3.3. A need for higher education, training and skill development 57
5.3.4. Lifelong learning 58
5.4. Conclusions 59
6. Economic Activity 60
6.1. A Profile of NW Business 61
6.2. A snapshot of some important industries in the NW LGAs 68
6.2.1. Manufacturing 68
6.2.2. Health and community services 69
6.2.3. Retail 71
6.2.4. Agriculture forestry and fishing 72
6.2.5. Construction 77
6.2.6. Tourism 79
6.2.7. Transport industry 80
6.3. Conclusions 84
7. Infrastructure 85
7.1. Energy infrastructure 85
7.2. Telecommunications and Internet access 86
7.3. Roads and transport infrastructure 88
7.4. Water infrastructure 91
7.5. Port infrastructure 92
7.6. Waste 94
7.7. Private sector investments and infrastructure projects in planning 95
7.8. Conclusions 97
8. The environment 98
8.1. Current environmental issues 98
8.2. The impact of climate change and other emerging issues 98
8.3. Conclusions 100
9. Key Drivers of Development 101
10. Growth projections 103
10.1. Population Growth 103
10.2. Change in the labour force 104
11. A gap analysis of the VET provision for the North West 106
11.1. Limitations on this analysis 106
11.2. Analysis of existing public and private provision based within the region 106
11.3. Conclusions 110
Appendices 111
Appendix 1: Methodology for developing this report 112
Appendix 2: North West enrolments by state funding source and level 2002-06 113
Appendix 3: National key findings for graduates and module completers from all VET providers by state/territory, 2007 114
Appendix 4: VET Qualifications by Level and Field of Study for NW LGAs, NW Region and Tasmania (2006) 115
Appendix 5: Higher Education Qualifications by Level and Field of Study for NW LGAs, NW Region and Tasmania (2006) 116
12. References 117
List of Tables
Table 1: Summary regional community socio-demographic 3
Table 2: Total population of NW LGAs and notional catchment populations for main urban
VET delivery (2006)…………………………………………………………………………………...... 12
Table 3: Estimated distances and travel times for NW communities to access major urban VET centres…………………………………………………………………………………………..13
Table 4: Resident population age by sex for NW LGAs (2006) 14
Table 5: Gross individual weekly income by sex by NW LGA, the region & Tasmania (2006) 14
Table 6: Change & growth in residential population for NW LGAs, the region & Tasmania (1996, 2001 & 2006) 15
Table 7: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander population by NW Tasmanian LGAs (2006) 18
Table 8: Indigenous persons by age in NW Tasmanian LGAs (2006) 20
Table 9: Age group and sex of indigenous VET students, Mersey-Lyell, Tasmania and Australia (2006) 20
Table 12: Census of Population and Housing, Labour force status by age by sex for indigenous persons (2006) 23
Table 13: Comparison of labour force participation rates of NW Tasmanian Indigenous Persons and the Tasmanian population (2006) 23
Table 16: Percentage of Population in older age groups in NW LGAs and Tasmania (2006) 27
Table 17: Post-compulsory education and training participation rates by sex for the NW LGAs 1996-2006 28
Table 18: VET students, by age group and sex, Mersey-Lyell, Tasmania & Australia 2006 29
Table 19: 2027.6 Tasmanian population census data: Burnie and Devonport suburbs – non-school qualification by level of education (2006) 32
Table 28: Employment by industry and gender for North Western LGAs 45
Table 29: Field of study by occupation for the NW region (2006) 46
Table 30: Occupation by gender for North Western LGAs 47
Table 31: Field of study of non-school qualification by gender for the NW LGAs and Tasmania 47
Table 33: NW regional skill priorities by field of study and occupational level (2006) 49
Table 35: Industry of employment (ANZSIC06) by UAI5P usual address five years ago indicator by NW LGA 52
Table 38: Counts of Australian businesses, including entries and exits for Tasmania (2006-07) 65
Table 39: Survival of businesses by industry subdivision for Tasmania, by annual turnover size ranges: June 2003 - June 2007 66
Table 40: Survival of entries by industry subdivision for Tasmania, by annual turnover size ranges: June 2003 - June 2007 67
Table 41: Tasmanian food & beverage scorecard 2004 – 05 73
Table 42: National capital city/rural change in house prices Jan 2007 to Jan 2008 78
Table 43: Computer use at home by LGA 87
Table 44: Internet use in Tasmanian NW Local Government Areas 88
Table 45: Cargo loaded and unloaded by Tasmanian ports, 2005–06 93
Table 46: Ship activity at Tasmanian ports, 2005–06 93
Table 47: North West Coast Investment Projects 96
Table 48: North West Tasmanian regional strengths and weaknesses 101
Table 49: Employment growth by ANZSIC industry, Tasmania 2006-7 to 2014-15 ('000 persons) 104
Table 50: Employment growth by ASCO occupation, Tasmania 2006-7 to 2014-15 ('000 persons) 104
Table 51: Employment growth by ASCED qualification field, Tasmania 2006-7 to 2014-15 ('000 persons) 105
Table 52: Employment growth by ASCED attainment level, Tasmania 2006-7 to 2014-15 ('000 persons) 105
Table 53: Employment growth by ASCED attainment level, Tasmania 2006-7 to 2014-15 ('000 persons)……………………………………………………………………………………….107
Table 54: Output of the NW VET system (2002-06)………………………………………..…..108
List of Figures
Figure 1: Satellite photo-map of North West Tasmania and King Island 10
Figure 2: Ribbon development of Penguin, Chasm Creek, Burnie and Somerset areas 10
Figure 3: Comparison of Burnie/Waratah-Wynyard’s & Devonport/Latrobe's gross individual weekly incomes 2006 16
Figure 4: Comparison of gross weekly family incomes within the richest and poorest rural and urban NW LGAs (2006) 17
Figure 5: SEIFA index of relative advantage/disadvantage (2001) 30
Figure 6: SEIFA index of economic resources (2001) 31
Figure 7: SEIFA index of education and occupation (2001) 31
Figure 9: Business size by turnover in NW Tasmania (2006) 61
Figure 10: Total businesses in NW Tasmania by industry (2006) 62
Figure 11: Size of NW Tasmanian businesses by number of employees (2006) 63
Figure 12: NW Tasmania - breakdown of small businesses by industry (2006) 63
Figure 13: NW Tasmanian businesses compared with total Tasmanian and total Australian businesses by industry (2006) 64
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NW Tasmania Regional Training Demand Profile
Preface
This Training Demand Profile, by necessity, provides contextual information about the socio-demographics, industry and business profiles of the region but only does so where it may provide some assistance to understanding the publicly funded vocational education and training drivers and needs. It was not intended nor purports to provide an in-depth socio-economic analysis of the North West community and readers should refer to other more appropriate sources for that information. The Cradle Coast Authority which co-ordinates and drives economic development across the nine local government areas of North-West and Western Tasmania (http://www.cradlecoast.com/Files/01112_CradleCoastAuthorityPortal.asp) or the Infrastructure and Resource Information Service (IRIS) which has been developed by the Tasmanian Government to provide information and tools to help investors, developers and planners (http://www.iris.tas.gov.au/) or the relevant State Government Agencies are recommended starting points for further information.
The content of this report has been constrained to some extent by:
· The nature of the statistical data gathered by government sources. In particular, in many instances data is not collected at a local government area (LGA) level that allows the compilation of a profile for specific aggregations of LGAs;
· The small numbers in some fields of activity may potentially result in a breach of confidentiality as determined by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cwth) if data was released to the public. To avoid this, where the statistics in any area are small, the ABS has randomly changed the number to protect privacy and so readers will note that some tables, particularly those that provide statistics for the individual LGAs, will not sum to the total shown at the foot or side of the table;
· Many government agencies develop policies and programs for the whole state and do not differentiate regions or industries unless there are special circumstances;
· ABS data, on which this report largely relies, is a self-reporting survey which at times has high levels of detail lacking and is subject, to some extent, to highly idiosyncratic interpretation of questions and therefore some bias.
The exclusion of the West Coast region or the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Lyell Statistical Subdivision requires the data sets for this report to be compiled for either the EIGHT Local Government Areas (LGAs) or for the remaining TWO ABS Statistical Subdivisions, Burnie-Devonport or North Western Rural. Where it has been possible and practicable information has been compiled from data for the eight LGAs and unless otherwise stated as close as possible to the displayed data or in the cited text, ABS data for the eight individual LGAs has been used. However, any material citing “Mersey-Lyell” contains a relatively small error for the West Coast population however in these instances, the author has made a judgement that the inclusion of the West Coast population does not bias the analysis or the ultimate findings.
Abbreviations
ABS – Australian Bureau of Statistics
AQF – Australian Qualifications Framework
AQTF – Australian Quality Training Framework
FOS – Field of Study
LGA – Local Government Area(s)
NW - North West
RTO – Registered Training Organisation
VET - Vocational Education and Training
1. Summary - Key Points
Table 1: Summary regional community socio-demographic
indicators for North West Tasmania (1996, 2001 & 2006)
The characteristics of the North West coast region of Tasmania[1] are not only attributable to its rich resources, natural beauty and industrious people but also to its history and the constraints of its rugged topography.
The region was first settled in the far west by the Van Dieman’s Land Company grant in 1826 and then gradually the rugged central coast was settled largely by miners, timber-cutters, yeoman farmers and some ex-convicts. The original indigenous owners of the land, the North West and Northern tribes, were reduced to one sixth of their original numbers by the mid-1830s and were extinct as a people by 1857.
The rugged topography and distance to markets that so constrained these early settlers remain today. The difficulties associated with the steep, broken topography and deep, fast-flowing rivers with thickly wooded slopes combined with impenetrable tea tree flats around the coastal estuaries has produced the ribbon development east-west along the coast and inland, north-south along the ridge lines. Today this combines with a relatively small population to produce continuing concerns about transport systems and access, particularly for the disadvantaged. The isolation and perceived lack of support from the colonial government for development as the convict labour system wound down laid the foundation for the regional parochialism that is still evident today.
The NW has 21% of the state’s population, is relatively homogeneous, ageing faster than any other in the nation, has shortages of those in the child raising age groups and has the lowest labour participation rates in the country. The Kentish and Circular Head districts have been identified as the most disadvantaged by ABS modelling (SEIFA index) of a basket of socio-economic and educational characteristics. King Island, paradoxically considering its isolation, is relatively advantaged in many aspects.
The NW attracts mainly English peaking migrants and only 32, out of the 368 from non-English speaking countries arriving since 2004, rate themselves as being poor in English language skills.
The retail, accommodation, health care, manufacturing and agriculture have the highest proportions of people with low incomes whilst manufacturing, mining, health and education have the highest proportions of highly paid jobs.
Indigenous People have high participation rates in education and training and lower employment. They are growing faster than the rest of the NW population but in other demographic respects are quite similar to the main population. Younger Indigenous women are less involved in education whilst older women are more likely to be involved. This is consistent with national statistics. Indigenous people are engaged with lower levels of education but participate at less than half the state rate for higher education.
In the main urban centres several suburbs stand out as most educationally disadvantaged; East Devonport, Quoiba, Acton Shorewell, Somerset, Upper Burnie and Wivenhoe.