Briefing Report 3: Scenario Workshops - Skilling the Bay - Geelong Regional Labour Market Profile

As part of the 'Skilling the Bay: Geelong Regional Labour Market Profile', a series of scenario workshops were held in Geelong in February 2013, envisioning futures for the region in ten years' time. These workshops engaged a range of stakeholders from key sectors: health care and social assistance, manufacturing, education, and local government. The workshops enabled stakeholders in the Regional Geelong Area to consider 'extreme futures' and to identify and discuss key issues that are seen as central to future planning and policy making. Utilising 'extreme scenarios', these workshops aimed to open up discussion about industry futures and the identification of investment and job opportunities, as well as enable an understanding of skills profiles and strategies to deal with skills surfeits, deficits and up-skilling. Such an analysis intends to provide a focused understanding of skills issues, as they emerge and from different actors' perspectives, allowing stakeholders to identify potential ways forward for the region. The report summarises the background and approach to, and the implementation and outcomes of the three Scenario Workshops. The scenario stories and the workshop discussions are designed to prompt further debate amongst the diverse stakeholder constituency in support of coordinated action towards the most positive future outcomes for the region.