We want to understand the skills needs of food and fibre industries over the longer term, and what vocational education and training is required to support their aspirations. We also want to be able to look at how different scenarios for each industry will affect the amount of training required.
There is a lack of existing tools or modelling to track how different policies or scenarios might affect the workforce over a long-term period.
The skills forecasting project will deliver a forecasting tool that allows us to track projected changes in the workforces across food and fibre industries, and their skills and training needs, over a 50-year period.
The underpinning tool will be an agent-based microsimulation model. It will be calibrated to actual data on the food and fibre workforce and the qualifications they hold. Effectively, it will provide a month-by-month model of the food and fibre workforce.
The model will be adjustable, allowing users to test different scenarios, questions and assumptions. We will provide a public interface for use by industry, providers, government agencies and others with an interest in the food and fibre sector to explore a range of scenarios. The underlying model will also be available for collaborators to work with us on building and testing out new scenarios.
Key Steps
- September – December 2023 - Scoping and model outline
- January - June 2024 - Prototype model development
- July - October 2024 - Model quality assurance and refinement
- November – December 2024 - Model testing with stakeholders and launch
Latest update
We have transferred the first iteration of the model over to our Shared Data Platform infrastructure and are currently running stress tests.
We are on schedule to test the tool for use by food and fibre industries prior to launch by the end of 2024.