Thousands of jobs may have been created in Tasmania's health care and social assistance industries in the past decade, but businesses cannot keep up with demand for such workers, which has created a skills gap.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Deloitte's The path to prosperity: Why the future of work is human report, which was published this week, showed Tasmanian workers are missing many of the skills needed for the future of work.
By 2030 skills shortages were predicted in customer service, organisation and time management, health, digital literacy and leadership.
IN OTHER NEWS:
SearsonBuck recruitment state manager Nick Prokopiec said there was already a greater need for workers in aged care in the state, because there were not enough skilled staff to take up the roles.
"There is a significant gap in aged and and disability services within Tasmania, but they are investing in training in these areas," Mr Prokopiec said.
"The challenge for Tasmania is our workforce is attracted to the mainland, so we get a drain of people. The labour shortage in Tasmania makes it difficult, because talent is short right now.
"A lot is occurring in [the aged care] space, but we still need to attract people to the state to assist businesses and then retrain them," he said.
Mr Prokopiec said businesses needed to forward plan much more than they do now to ensure they attract and retain the staff they needed.
"The challenge for businesses is around planning. They need to have growth plans in place for two to three years," he said.
Another industry experiencing a gap is hospitality.
However, declining industries, like manufacturing, offer an opportunity for workers to retrain and reskill for roles where some of those skills could be utilised, like IT, engineering and design.
The report also forecast a lack in soft skills involving customer service, care for others and collaboration.
It showed more than 80 per cent of the jobs created between now and 2030 will be for knowledge workers, and two-thirds of jobs will be strongly reliant on soft skills.
When it comes to choosing soft skills over training the right person, Mr Prokopiec recommends recruiting for the role's core skills and then training for gaps.
"Those skills can come with maturity, but also with experience. It doesn't matter if you've got life experience or are building your career," he said.
"You can't look for the perfect person, but need to look outside the scope of perfect. If you have the core base skills, aptitude and culture alignment, you can train for soft skills."
While you're with us, did you know you can now sign up to receive updates direct to your inbox?
Johanna Baker-Dowdell
Johanna has more than 22 years experience as a journalist for newspapers, magazines and online publications.
Johanna has more than 22 years experience as a journalist for newspapers, magazines and online publications.
