National AI Skills Forum - Canberra

Acknowledgements omitted

It is a pleasure to be back here with Future Skills Organisation, and to join such a broad group of leaders from industry, unions, government and education as part of today’s program.

This Forum is focused on a question that matters to every part of our economy: how do we build AI capability at scale?

FSO has brought practical leadership to that national imperative.

You are helping us understand how work is changing, connecting industry with the skills system, and developing responses that can reach workers, educators, employers and indeed the wider public.

That work matters because adopting new technology is only part of the challenge. It’s the threshold, not the end game.

Whether we realise the benefits of AI will depend on how equipped people are in using it, the choices made in and by workplaces, and if workers have a genuine opportunity to participate in that change.

The Albanese Labor Government is focused on playing a leadership role in this work, in partnership with those of you here today, and those you represent across your sectors.

Artificial intelligence is already changing the way Australians work.

But we should be careful about presuming we know exactly where that change will lead.

Jobs and Skills Australia’s research suggests that generative AI currently has much greater potential to augment people’s work than to automate it.

For most workers, the more immediate impact will be on the tasks they perform and the skills they use and develop in their roles.

This presents a significant opportunity to enhance productivity, strengthen capability and create new ways of working.

As AI tools become more widely adopted, workers will increasingly combine technical, digital and inherently human skills, especially critical thinking. 

As roles ,and the tasks that we bundle into jobs continue to evolve, we must keep pace and rethink how people gain experience and build capabilities throughout their careers.

This highlights the importance of ensuring training, education and workforce development systems can adapt alongside changing skill requirements and career pathways.

FSO’s latest workforce plan takes a measured and forward-looking approach, recognising AI as an important driver of workforce change and capability development.

Rather than focusing on a single forecast for the future, the report highlights the importance of building a workforce that is adaptable, skilled and equipped to succeed in a changing environment.

Our task is to help shape a fair and productive transition that expands opportunities and spreads the benefits of AI across our economy and communities.

Such as using AI to extend people’s capabilities, helping workers build complementary skills, and supporting lifelong learning as roles continue to evolve.

It also rests upon ensuring Australians can access the training and development opportunities they need to confidently participate in and benefit from these changes.

So, a practical question: are we equipping Australians with the skills and lifelong learning opportunities needed to thrive in an AI-enabled economy?

That question is urgent. Because there is already a big gap to close.

FSO’s latest workforce plan found that 86 per cent of surveyed finance, technology and business workers want more AI training.

Yet around half say they have received no AI training or resources.

And across the economy, only around 27 per cent of employers report providing any form of AI training. 

Workers are ready to learn. At the moment, too many are being left to work it out for themselves.

Closing that gap is not simply a matter of teaching everyone to use the same tools.

Different workers will need different skills, depending on their job, their experience and how AI is used in their workplace. 

How its use is managed too.

Some will need specialist expertise to develop and deploy AI systems.

But every worker using AI needs a practical understanding of what it can do, its limits, and when an output needs to be questioned.

They need the judgement to recognise an error. The knowledge to understand whether an answer makes sense. And the confidence to know when a decision must remain human.

These capabilities rely on more than technical skill. 

Jobs and Skills Australia’s research shows that critical thinking, communication, initiative and leadership become more important as people work alongside AI. 

Domain knowledge matters too. A plausible answer is not necessarily a correct one. Workers need enough understanding of their field to tell the difference.

Building that capability can help people use AI safely and productively. 

It can help workers adapt as their roles change and are re-organised as they move into new opportunities and make better use of the time technology saves.

This is why the Albanese Government’s National AI Plan highlights skills and training as a critical step in spreading the benefits of AI.

The challenge now is to build capability across workplaces, while ensuring our skills system can deliver trusted training widely, quickly and with confidence.

For the skills system, that means being able to respond to change without losing the quality and confidence that recognised training provides.

Formal qualifications remain essential.

They build the knowledge, critical thinking and capacity to keep learning the skills that workers will need throughout their careers.

They also give people skills that are recognised and portable, not tied to one employer or one piece of technology.

At the same time, digital technologies can evolve quickly.

The challenge is not to compromise quality, but to ensure the skills system remains informed by emerging industry practice and workforce needs.

This is where Jobs and Skills Councils play an important role, helping to identify changes in the workforce, bring industry and educators together, and translate trends into practical responses for the skills system.

That means keeping AI content current in qualifications.

It means making good use of modular and short-form training where workers need to build a specific capability quickly – in a way that is more accessible than a longer qualification. 

It means supporting teachers and trainers to keep pace with changes in both technology and industry practice.

And it means stronger tripartite partnerships, so that learning reflects what is happening in workplaces.

So our Government will continue to ensure Australians have the skills they need not just to navigate these changes, but to seize the opportunities they create.

The National Skills Agreement recognises digital and technological capability as a national skills priority, and identifies a clear role for Jobs and Skills Councils in aligning workforce development with industry needs. 

As Minister for Skills and Training, I want a system that gives Australians the confidence to adapt, the opportunity to keep learning, and skills that carry real value wherever their working lives take them.

FSO is already helping to show what that can look like in practice.

The FSO Skills Accelerator – AI, announced at last year’s Forum, brings industry and the VET sector together to expand access to AI skills for learners, educators and administrators.

It provides a place to connect, share practical resources and build approaches that can reach beyond any one workplace or training provider. 

The initiative now has more than 1,300 members across industry, education and government. 

The Digital Knowledge Exchange takes the same collaborative approach across jurisdictions.

By helping state and territory governments share knowledge and scale effective digital skills initiatives, it reduces the need for each part of the system to solve the same problem separately. 

These initiatives differ in their design, but they share a common purpose: helping more Australians build the capability to use AI confidently, safely and productively.

It means using workforce evidence to identify where capability is falling behind.

It means connecting employers with the people who design and deliver training.

And it means taking approaches that work in one organisation, sector or jurisdiction and making them available more widely.

FSO is also developing generalist and specialist digital and AI units of competency and examining the barriers that smaller employers and different groups of workers face when adopting AI. 

Together, this work can help make training more relevant, reduce duplication and build stronger links between the skills system and the workplace.

But no organisation can deliver national capability on its own.

Reaching workers across Australia will require every part of this room to play its part.

Governments have a responsibility to set direction and support a strong, responsive skills system.

But this transition will also be shaped in workplaces.

Employers must invest in their people alongside new technology.

This is something I’ll be speaking more about in the future.  

Late last week JSA released a really interesting report.

The report makes clear that skills are one of Australia's most important productivity assets, yet we still know too little about the scale of employer investment – what we do know, though, is that too many workers are missing opportunities to build new capabilities. 

There is a real opportunity for businesses to lean in: to invest more in learning, support lifelong skill development, and help ensure their workforce is ready for the opportunities ahead.

Workers and unions must have a clearly defined voice in how AI is introduced and how work is redesigned.

Educators need the support and industry connections to keep their knowledge current.

And organisations like FSO can help bring that work together, share what is effective and extend its reach.

We must also ensure these opportunities are widely shared.

People already affected by digital exclusion, and workers in roles facing the greatest change, cannot be the last to receive training or support.

If we get this right, AI can strengthen people’s capabilities and open new opportunities for good, secure work.

That will require practical action, sustained cooperation and a clear focus on the people experiencing this transition.

That is the task before this Forum.

And it is a task we must take forward together.

Thank you.