Download Huon Valley Works – text

Huon Valley Works
Again from GeCo…
During the initial development of our unfunded TML project we conducted
surveys and spoke to a lot of people about the social problems that exist in
our community and how best to address them. Everything came back to a lack
of training and employment opportunities.
This research showed that employers, both large and small, struggle to find
suitable local workers, especially for seasonal and casual work.
Amongst the local small businesses there was a 14000 hour or 7FTE shortfall
The main reasons cited include the unreliable and inconsistent nature of the
work and the low skill level and lack of work readiness in the labour
pool. There is a clear gap between the employer and the employees. This
problem exists not only in the Huon, but across the State.
In conversations with state growth it turned out that Allen Kenny had been
looking at some way of addressing this issue for some time. After bringing
Skills Tasmania into the conversation we managed to get some funding to do a
feasibility and business plan for such a project.
That work has been completed so that now..
We believe a model can be built that begins to remove those barriers by
focusing on a local level, and forming a ‘community based’ labour hire
company. Huon Valley Works will be a not for profit, ethical, local labour hire
company working within the Huon Valley local government area. Linking
employers to job seekers it will be a social enterprise with the mission of
growing local employment opportunities through a holistic approach to the
unemployment problem.
By starting small we have an easily adaptable model with achievable
goals. Cost effectiveness will be enhanced by using the labour hire margin to
supplement available workforce development funding.
This approach will not only increase the local employment opportunities, it will
increase local economic development, build social and community capital, and
offer excellent social return on investment.
This ‘top down, bottom up’ approach will deliver real solutions for the local
labour market.
The Hub will comprise four broad components:
1. Community Building. The Hub will be governed by the local community,
including business representatives, job seekers and supporters of the project.
Representatives from the key stakeholders will either be on the board or
available in an advisory role. The Hub will be driven by people who live in the
community - adapting quickly to the needs of Huon Valley employers and job
seekers to help build the economic base of the region.
2. Skill development. Profits will be directed to training and workforce/skills
development to meet the needs of the job seeker and the employer. Partnering
with appropriate RTO’s and jobactive providers, resources can be pooled to
achieve the best possible outcomes. Working with a broad range of
organisations across sectors who are gathering, or have data, regarding skills
needs will help HVW meet current and future needs and assist HVW in
understanding, adopting and applying best practice methods.
3. Employment. The backbone of the Employment Hub is a not for profit
ethical, local labour hire company that links job seekers with (initially) casual
positions. Providing all the services of a regular labour hire company,
supported by a nationwide Group Training Organisation (GTO) HVW will offer
an industry competitive rate to employers.
By mapping the seasonal work opportunities and coordinating positions
across a range of employers HVW can fill the gaps in the employee’s working
week with the aim of offering full time employment.
4. Economic Development. The Hub will work with businesses in the region
to assist with developing the workforce needed for businesses to grow.
The plan has been submitted to SkillsTasmania, been further refined and
developed in consultation with them and has now passed through their system
and is on the ministers desk for a funding request to run a pilot project based
at GeCo.
If the funding application is successful and HVW itself proves to be successful
then there could well be opportunities to roll out similar enterprises in other
parts of the state…