Cross-occupational skill transferability: challenges and opportunities in a changing economy

Industries, and the occupations encompassed by them, are susceptible to many influences, such as fluctuations in the Australian dollar, trade agreements and the emergence of new technologies and ways of working. A recent example of these changes is the decline of the auto manufacturing industry in Australia; closures in this industry have resulted in increasing redundancies leading to many people seeking work. In order to better understand where individuals in these situations can find work, this research looks at the transferability of skills between occupations at the same skill level. In order to do this, the research identifies growing and declining occupations across Australia, assesses how the vocational education and training (VET) system develops transferable skills and explores how workers facing retrenchment understand their transferable skills.