Last week I attended a meeting of the Ministerial Skills Roundtable, chaired by Minister for Training and Skills Development Shannon Fentiman.

The group provides advice to the Queensland Government on strategies to ensure that young people are being provided with the skills and training that will be needed in the workforce of the future.

The meeting was an opportunity to look at Queensland’s skills and training effort in both the national context and in light of the State Government’s economic recovery planning.

Also last week the Federal Government released Looking to the future – Report of the review of senior secondary pathways into work, further education and training.

The report proposes a new national approach to senior secondary education. Key recommendations include:

• Introduce a Learner Profile that will identify a student’s range of skills, knowledge and experiences both from inside and outside the classroom.
• Develop a national strategy with the Skills Council to deliver VET to secondary students.
• Strengthen career guidance by creating a network of hubs providing individualised career guidance with an initial focus on regional and remote areas.

At both State and Federal level there is some significant education policy work being undertaken which will potentially influence how our schools deliver senior secondary education in coming years.