What was it all about?

The nursery industry supply chain is a significant sector of the Australian horticultural industry, employing 25,000 people in more than 1,600 small to medium enterprises. Yet the industry, like many other agricultural industries, faces major challenges around high staff turnover and an ability to attract and retain qualified people.  

This project, which ran from 2018 to 2019 developed a strategy that provides a clear roadmap for skilled career path development in the nursery industry in the short to medium term, and longer-term strategies to sustain an interest in working in the industry. It is based on a desktop review and intensive consultation with the nursery industry.

The strategy considers the current skilled employment and training situation in the nursery industry and recommends a five-pillar strategy to underpin the economic sustainability of the sector.

The strategy recommends the following activities: 

• Industry promotion and awareness
• Promote the value of the nursery sector to achieve government support
• Training, both formal and informal, to support the upskilling of the nursery industry
• Human resource management practices support to ensure adequate employment standards across the nursery industry
• Defined jobs and career pathways.

The team stresses that the five pillars are interconnected and thus have to be addressed in a coordinated way to achieve the intended outcomes. They recommend that someone is appointed to drive implementation of the strategy, which will require coordination between many stakeholders, including education and training providers, service agencies and other industry stakeholders.

ACT NOW

• Download the Nursery industry career pathways report
• Download the report Nursery industry career path development strategy
• See the presentation on key project findings that was delivered as a webinar to industry in April 2019.