Almost 100 water industry stakeholders participated in the fourth annual Queensland Water Skills Forum on Thursday 4 March, hosted as a hybrid event with most delegates attending in person and the remainder online. View the photos. 

The forum covered a number of key themes that had been identified by Water Skills Partners as their most pressing skilling and workforce priorities, including leadership development, succession planning and future training requirements. Recordings of presentations and copies of PowerPoint slides are available for download by qldwater members, Water Skills Partners and forum attendees.

Thanks and congratulations to all those who provided presentations at the forum and shared their ideas and experiences and to everyone who got involved in conversations on the day. 

Feedback was invited throughout the day from delegates participating online and those in person about the priorities they would most like to address through the collaboration of the Water Skills Partnership and the common issues identified were:

-          The need for a mandatory minimum competency standard for operators;

-          Tools to support retirement transitions;

-          Addressing the FTE caps within utilities to allow for the recruitment of more trainees; and

-          Skilling opportunities for future and current leaders.

The Water Skills Partnership will discuss the outcomes from the forum and consider collaborative opportunities to support Queensland utilities in addressing these issues.