Tasmania is experiencing a major skills gap across transport and logistics, with shortages in driving, warehousing, fleet operations and diesel fitting. Despite this challenge, school-based pathways were not available to prepare young people for careers in the industry. Attempts to introduce VET in Schools (VETiS) for transport and logistics were at an impasse: schools lacked resources, industry was willing but unsure how to engage, and students had limited awareness of their career opportunities. The problem seemed intractable: awareness without a pathway, and pathways without student interest.
The turning point came when ISA and the Tasmanian Transport Association (TTA) partnered to address the identified issues. Together, ISA and TTA worked with the
Department for Education, Children and Young People (DECYP)RTO and a workforce development contractor to align the missing pieces. Damian Peirce, TTA’s Workforce Project Consultant from DPCTas explained, “ISA has really helped with ongoing support and engagement to develop resources in the schools…… that piece has always been missing. So, ISA’s involvement – that’s made a real difference.”
ISA’s coordination enabled progress by:
- Working with stakeholders, TTA members to identify 14 suitable Units of Competency.
- Working directly with the DECYP RTO to develop learning and assessment resources.
- Supporting industry engagement and validation processes.
- Helping to establish a pathway based on the Certificate II in Supply Chain Operations, a broad Transport and Logistics qualification that connects into multiple transport-related occupations.
- Contributing to the development of career awareness tools to support consistent engagement with schools.
The collaborative effort was designed to overcome past challenges, including:
- Low student interest due to poor awareness and misconceptions about transport career pathways and jobs.
- School constraints, including competing pathways and fears about safety, licensing and risk.
- Timing pressures in the school year as qualifications must be approved before subject selection periods (April–August).
- Ongoing requirements to rebuild trust and understanding as school and department staff rotate roles.
Early outcomes are strong with two schools committed to delivery of the qualification and a further ten in exploratory conversations. Training resources are completed and undergoing industry validation. Following the validation process, the resources will support the RTO’s application to ASQA for an addition to their scope of registration.
ISA’s role in aligning stakeholders, managing timelines against school selection cycles, and clarifying perceived risks has been critical. As Peirce noted:
“In the past, we’ve had the school on board, but no student interest. We’ve had industry on board, but no schools. And even if we had achieved those three points on the triangle, we’ve never had the learning and assessment resources. We haven’t had a coordinated career awareness approach which is now underway through the TTA’s Drive Your Career campaign, so those things are now all coming together, which makes a real difference.”
TTA’s strong connections with Transport and Logistics employers will be essential to the success of this pilot and future programs. Employer involvement will help to secure work experience placements and potential job opportunities for students, providing an immersion program that exposes students first-hand to Transport careers.
Through the project, ISA found Tasmania to be an ideal environment to pilot new skilling initiatives. Features that enable rapid project progress when coordination is aligned include:
- small population and close-knit networks making it easy to convene stakeholders
- clearly identified workforce shortages
- limited competition for new pathways
- proximity between schools and industry
- strong existing relationships between stakeholders
The state provides an excellent setting for targeted trials before scaling to larger jurisdictions with its compact system, strong collaborative networks and clear workforce. The lessons learned in this setting offer a sound basis for broader adaptation and scale up.