It’s time to address challenges of the North

‘Our North, Our Future’ paper published

Northern Adelaide needs more targeted leadership and coordinated workforce information to create a better economic future for the region, according to Northern Futures Inc.

The paper details the workforce needs of northern Adelaide, lists ‘pain points’ in learning and literacies and coordinated career development, and identifies areas for action.

Northern Futures Inc Chairman Jon Martin said the north faced entrenched pockets of disengagement and low aspiration.

“The challenge is to inspire our youth and to develop their strengths,” Mr Martin said.

“The central issue that Our North, Our Future addresses is a lack of localised and connected knowledge, paired with action through the right channels.

“Northern Futures has focused on workforce development since its inception in 2002,” Mr Martin said. “We produced Our North, Our Future to help maximise employment opportunity in South Australia, in particular northern Adelaide, and our Board will work hard to ensure the successful implementation of the recommendations.”

Our North, Our Future Update

Thank you for supporting Northern Futures with Our North, Our Future Blueprint2. I thought I would provide an update on how it is moving forward and gaining more support and traction.

We hosted a strategy session last week that agreed that there continues to be a need for a collective approach to future workforce skills, including building greater workforce participation and resilience.

The Blueprint2 is an enabler to progress the workforce development conversation in the context of northern Adelaide and further afield. Northern Adelaide contributes over $20b to the South Australian economy and as such it needs a strong workforce model to ensure continued growth. Continuous enhancement of skills, workforce participation, job opportunities, career advice, resilience in job search and barriers to working form part of the conversation trail, however the real topic is how can we make a difference? Personal identity is of key importance to success for our community and businesses alike, success in career choices and career pathways. We need to facilitate leadership in businesses that encourage a culture of career growth, ongoing learning and support plus strong skills development in a ever-changing world of work.

Your engagement with our consultation has been invaluable. I will update you further as we progress the model.

Gail Sulicich
Chief Executive

Thank you for your interest in the Our North, Our Future: workforce and skills project. In the wake of the closure of Holdens and the emergence of new industries it is timely to update the 2010 Northern Adelaide Skills, Workforce and Employment Blueprint.

Our consultation process utilised forums and surveys to collect the perspectives of job seekers, the people involved in workforce development and wider community members, and asked questions that reflect the Six Pillars [of Success] identified in the 2010 Northern Adelaide Skills, Workforce and Employment Blueprint.

Using the information gathered, Northern Futures will be in a position to track local views about changes, trends and work yet to be done to support future workforce development in Our North.

Subscribe here to receive the Our North, Our Future newsletter which will provide information about more ways you can express your opinion about skills, workforce and employment for Our Future. We’ll let you know when the Our North, Our Future Blueprint 2 is published.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Meet our champions