A Roadmap for the geospatial sector
Australia needsa relevant and skilled, digitally enabled, space and spatial industry workforce to be assured of a thriving industry in the immediate and emerging future.
GCA engages members and broader industry to understand what skills will be needed for emerging roles as well as address shortages for current roles.
Our priorities to advance the workforce are professional development and certification; development of a national skills and career pathway; development of a taxonomy of occupations; and national competency frameworks.
Support for a targeted workforce strategy
The Geospatial Council welcomes a comprehensive report with a national call to address workforce challenges for the surveying and spatial workforce with a more targeted, collaborative strategy across the sector.
The Australian Surveying and Spatial Workforce – A National Roadmap was commissioned by The Surveyors’ Trust and authored by sector workforce expert Danika Bakalich.
The paper advocates for the Geospatial industry to adopt a sustainable, holistic approach to workforce planning and implementation underpinned by collaboration of a wide range of industry sectors and representative bodies.
To fully address workforce capacity and capability needs, it is recommended that planning and program design be informed by long-term workforce development strategies and implementation building on evidence-based decisions relating to policy and regulatory frameworks, education and training pathways, workforce structure and economic development influenced by technology adoption, investment and global competition for talent.
The recommendations for creating a strong pipeline of skilled professionals are based on five key initiatives:
- National workforce taskforce: Establish an Industry-led national workforce taskforce to lead a national strategy and evaluate impact
- Environmental scan: Deliver biennial research on the state of the industry including analysis of elements impacting the workforce such as legislation, funding & investments, technology and learning/career pathways
- National competency framework: Develop a national competency framework from entry-level to executive level to represent the whole workforce
- Taxonomy of occupations: Develop a taxonomy of occupations across the geospatial workforce. Include ANZSCO and Industry defined occupations
- Development of a national skills and career pathway: Develop a national career pathway that brings together multi-dimensional pathways into the industry.
The report presents a surveying and spatial workforce roadmap and a high-level strategy for a national call to action to address workforce challenges being faced today and in the future.
It says the industry needs to remove silos to focus collectively on attracting, developing and retaining a current workforce and supporting career advancement.
‘This report has highlighted that if we don’t accelerate action, we will continue to experience significant skills shortages and expertise if a co-ordinated approach is not taken to address this. It is a wake-up call to the geospatial sector. We must act on the recommendations put forward or risk our sector not reaching its full potential.”
– GCA Acting President Paul Digney
