Targeted Skill-Building Incentives for Small Businesses

The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) welcomes the Productivity Commission’s (PC) recommendations to implement targeted financial incentives to increase work-related training across the small business sector, as well as its plan to introduce advisory services to support training uptake.

COSBOA Chair Matthew Addison said as the nation’s largest employer, small business plays a pivotal role in training, upskilling and reskilling the workforce, with incentives aimed at lowering the financial barriers to employee education, a key enabler to growth. “Small businesses want to invest in training that enhances their operations and offering, empowers their employees and accelerates adoption of new technologies. While small businesses offer non-formal learning opportunities every day, formalised training can be expensive and time consuming, and for small businesses that can be very hard to absorb,” Mr Addison said. “Targeted, incentivised work-related training would not only allow employers to offer the right education opportunities to staff, it would also support innovation, increase specialised skills and improve small business service offerings.

“We’re also glad the PC has hosed down union suggestions of a return to training levies, which were scrapped in 1996, by highlighting the significant administrative and cost burden such levies place on small business.”

COSBOA, which represents over 1.3 million small businesses across Australia, delivers the Australian Government Cyber Wardens program and Small Business Peak program, providing training and resources to help small business understand and engage with policy and uplift. The proposal of the tailored training advisory services aligns with these programs. According to Mr Addison, the PC’s recommendation to expand entry pathways and streamline qualification requirements across Australian jurisdictions would also be a win for small business, with a skills shortage forcing many to search far and wide for suitable employees.

“Currently, across a range of professions, there are excessive occupational entry requirements. For example, a qualified hairdresser from Queensland has to prove they’re experienced enough to work in NSW, and if you’re a motor vehicle repairer from South Australia, there are barriers to entry to work Western Australia,” Mr Addison said. “Mutual recognition of qualifications from state-to-state would help fill skilled job vacancies and enable small businesses to hire where and when they need.”

Mr Addison said empowering small business to enhance training offering to employers would be a force multiplier for productivity, and needs to play a key role in the Economic Reform Roundtable.