Skills Audits

• Introduction
  
• The Skills Audit Process
  
• Growing Skills
  
• Skills List
  
• References
  

Community Economic Development (CED) is concerned with the overall presence and provision of skills which can be harvested for community benefit in line with strategic objectives. It is part of the capital audit which informs the community economic development strategy for a community.

The economy is made up of people working both in industry sectors such as Agriculture, Manufacturing, Service or Hospitality and fields of knowledge such as Science, Art, Humanities. Each of these sectors comprises many jobs/ activities/ trades such as fruit picking, tractor mechanic, farmer, truck driver. Each of these jobs can be thought of as a group of tasks, each requiring specific skills. A skill is the ability to do something well, that comes from knowledge, understanding, practice and aptitude. A skill in a particular task involves competency in the task as well as an understanding of the task. This definition of skills recognises that useful skills are present in the whole population, not only within professions or trades. There is no such thing as unskilled work.

The assessment of skills for CED involves identifying the presence or absence of skills in the whole community rather than attempting to numerically grade the competency of the individuals in specific skills for a specific industry.

In CED, the focus is on harvesting existing skills and resources to create enterprises. The enterprise planners need to have an overview of the types of skills needed to undertake projects and the ability to find the necessary information within their community. The question then becomes which skills are needed to undertake a particular task and are these available in the community. The tasks are drawn from a strategic plan of required institutions, enterprises and research developed through the capital and skills audits as well as analysis ofthe enterprises required to meet communityneeds.

A Skills Audit is a method of accounting the existing and deficient skills in a community to illuminate under-utilised human capital which can be re-invested into creating a viable local economy. The skills audit will also point to areas in which training and education are needed so that suitable courses can be developed.

The skills audit process involves a mixture of long term and short term planning. Long term planning involves listing all the tasks and their skills, necessary in a sustainable community economy. The list of tasks could be based on an analysis of basic needs . The basic needs analysis identifies how many of the community's physical, social and psychological needs are being met by using local resources. It gives a benchmark on the community's overall self reliance.

Each required task is then analysed for which skills it requires to create a list of the skills required to meet the basic needs of a sustainable community. As well as a basic needs analysis, a more formal survey of the needs for services could be carried out to determine which needs are not being met. Once this list of desired skills is drawn up, the process continues by checking off those skills that are not available in the community. Strategies to attract people with those skills can then be developed, or existing residents can be retrained. Steps may also need to be taken to retain skills which are necessary for the long term stability of the community, such as growing food, which may be lost due to outside economic pressures.

Moving from the long term to the medium term, surveys of skills and services required by existing businesses that are not being met locally are carried out to determine demand. Surveys of existing skills within the community assess the presence, distribution and underutilisation of skills. The available skills are then assessed as to their currency and viability. The number and age of people with specific skills is examined by using census data or a survey. Currency is determined by identifying kills that have declining or increasing demand. If the average age of skilled people in that area is increasing, the skill may be unviable and training and recruitment processes will need to examined for a capacity to meet future demands for that skill.

The surpluses, deficiencies, requirements and existing skills identified at this stage of the audit process become the basis of action plans that follow. Community enterprises can be set up to fill gaps or to utilise available skills. and resources in a way which will improve the quality of life and sustainability of the community.

1. Types of Skills Audits
A skills audit can be done at the personal, enterprise or community level. During the CED process it will be necessary to do audits at all three levels as the strategic plan recommendations are implemented.

Skills Audits of individuals usually entail listing their academic and trade qualifications, hobbies and personal interests and work experience. The accuracy of the audit depends on the communication skills of the person being audited as well as the ability of the auditor to think laterally about transferable skills. The book What Color is Your Parachute?" details a comprehensive process for undertaking personal skills audits. The Skills List below, based on those in the book, serves as a checklist.

Enterprise level skills audits are carried out to determine which skills are present in the staff or are needed to expand or change its operations. They are also used to determine which skills are required for proposed enterprises. A community economic development agency or an enterprise incubator or in some cases a local accountant can carry out enterprise level skills audits.

A complete skills audit of a whole community can really only work at the level of what industry sectors are present and which jobs are undertaken. This would give little detailed information about what tasks and even less about what skills are used in performing those tasks. A thorough skills audit of one person can take a day, to audit a whole community would take months, if not years. The skills base of a community is constantly changing as people move around and as they undertake new tasks so it is almost impossible to undertake a complete skills audit of a community, as soon as the audit is complete it will be out of date.

To overcome these difficulties a community skills audit must be an ongoing process organised and implemented by the local community. A core of people is needed to assist in undertaking skills audits on a personal, enterprise and community level as they are required or as information becomes available. This work could be undertaken as part of the role of local government planning departments but it would be more accessible to community developers if it was undertaken by an independent community development organisation. Monitoring of skills and resources available to the community is presently not carried out at all, or carried out by various government departments. The results are not collated to provide an overall picture of the state of the community, so it is difficult for community members to make informed plans for improving their economy. Community level skills audits will need an ongoing recording mechanism which can be accessed by people undertaking enterprise planning or assessing training needs.

2. Skills Recording Mechanisms
As the skills in the community are constantly changing, it needs some ongoing mechanisms for recording and measuring the skills available to it. Some of these mechanisms are discussed below. Most of these mechanisms record enterprises, jobs or trades - it is assumed that the skills auditor will make an educated guess about the actual tasks, and the skills required to perform those tasks, that make up the job.

1. Trade Directory

This mechanism is self-funding through advertising revenue. However it only records the skills of those who can afford to advertise. The classifieds section of the local newspaper also acts as a trade directory. Professional organisations such as the Master Builders Association can supply a list of their members in the local area.

2. Yellow Pages

The Yellow Pages is a directory of existing enterprises within the community. The index gives a listing of the types of enterprises while the number of entries in each category gives clues as to which services may be in short supply. Again it only records those enterprises which can afford a commercial telephone service. A further consideration is that in rural areas many of the enterprises listed are not local.

3. LETS Noticeboard

The Local Economy Trading System is a barter system using its own medium of exchange. The 'noticeboard', a directory of services on offer, can be used to record the skills people themselves feel are marketable. Anyone can become involved as listings are usually free, or at most cost a few LET units.

4. Employment Agencies

Data may be available from the local employment agencies about the numbers of unemployed in different categories of skills. Job clubs and programmes such as Skillshare will have lists of participants and their skills.

5. Census Data

Census data mainly covers the industry sectors active in the community, statistics on occupations and qualifications. This data is available cross tabulated by age and sex. Census data provides a very broad picture of the skills base. The ABS has data on population, retail, manufacturing and agricultural activity at the shire level. This information has details about types of agricultural and manufacturing establishments.

6. Market Stalls, Fetes, Giftshops

The products on sale at these venues are usually made locally. They give a rough guide to the types and quality of craft skills in the community. These craft skills can be utilised in cottage industries or can be transferred to other manufacturing enterprises. The craftspeople are often women, or members of other disadvantaged groups.

7. Community Service Directory

Directories of the social welfare groups record those enterprises using skills in working with people. The volunteers in these organisations are often unaware that they have these skills e.g. Meals on Wheels volunteers probably have skills such as driving, time management, communicating with people, counselling, preparing large numbers of meals and ordering and stock control. Hobby and sporting organisations are also listed in the community service directory. Many of these are specialist groups, such as bushwalkers, whose members will have skills (walking long distances, bush survival) or knowledge (local plants, animals and land) useful to CED projects.

8. Learning Exchange

A learning exchange involves skilled community members volunteering their time to share those skills. It is similar to the Skillshare programme but in learning exchanges the emphasis on the hobby, craft or do-it-yourself level.

9. Surveys and Structured interviews

Formal, statistically significant, surveys of the skills within certain enterprises or industry sectors could be carried out by ABS or private market research companies. These surveys usually measure technical or trade skills but not skills in working with people or information, because these are so difficult to quantify. Informal surveys, using structured interviews could be carried out by a community group but this is a very time-consuming way to record skills.

10 Educational Institutions

These institutions may be able to provide statistics on curricula, enrolments and graduate employment. These institutions include schools, TAFE and universities. This can give estimates of how many people are learning skills and what those skills are. The different skills in the student statistics could be sorted by postcode to give a partial map of the skills base. The employment statistics of graduates can be sorted by employers postcode to identify how many people are taking their skills elsewhere.

CONTENTS

Sustainable economies require lifelong education so that people can adapt to the inevitable changes that are part of a living system. To sustain and manage its skills over time an economy needs to be supported by practices and infrastructure to nurture its skills base. The development of these infrastructures and practices would be a high priority in CED and essential if the information from the skills audit is to be applied.

To be sustainable, a community needs to ensure that it has the skills base required to meet its basic needs and that those skills remain viable.

The local employment agencies will have information on which skills are in demand and which positions are difficult to fill. The 'Jobs Vacant' columns of local newspapers will also be a good guide. Employer surveys can also be used to determine skill shortages. They can be used to encourage local businesses to think strategically about their employment needs. They could be asked to consider which types of skilled employees might allow their business to expand. Unemployed people can then be encouraged to learn those skills as a demonstrated demand for them exists.

When industries contract or close down some of the skills used in them may become redundant. For example, in a rural area changing from growing wool to beef, shearing skills will be redundant. Those skills will need to be transferred to some other industry or the shearers will need to be retrained.

Some skills may become unviable as well as redundant due to irreversible changes to the capital base of the community. For example, when all the millable timber has been removed from the community's forests, logging skills are no longer viable. Some skills become unviable when an adequate number of new people are not being trained in them. For example, the region might only have one stone mason who is 55 years old but their skill supports a profitable enterprise. Unless training is planned, that skill would die out locally when that person dies.

Having identified the required skills and their specific application from the audit, the appropriate mechanism for skills transfer into the community can be selected. Mechanisms for growing skills can occur in the formal educational setting and in experiential settings. Growing the broad range of skills needed for CED should occur in a wide diversity of settings, both government and community, to devolve and embed the skills growing process in the community.

Mechanisms for growing skills

1. Formal education

Primary and secondary schooling focusses on all three types of skills with a greater emphasis on working with information. TAFE colleges usually focus on technical and trade skills through a variety of diploma and certificate courses. These are often linked to apprenticeships. Universities usually focus on skills with information and professions such as medicine or architecture. The usually offer degree and diploma courses.

2. Business Intenders Courses

Small Business Development Corporations provide a range of courses which help enterprises get started and then manage themselves effectively.

3. Skillshare

These programmes work with unemployed people to improve their skills in a particular marketable field. Community members volunteer to share their skills with participants in a programme co-ordinated by the Skillshare group.

4. LETS

Although the LETS system is used mainly to barter existing skills, it does encourage members to develop more. It encourages local craftspeople to upgrade their skills to a commercial level. It also assumes that all people have some skills they can barter so it encourages them to think positively about their abilities.

5. Enterprise Incubators

Enterprise incubators are essentially organisations which assist the establishment of small businesses. The incubator is usually a shared workspace occupied by independent enterprises with a manager employed to assist with funding, education or management advice. The enterprises share costs and facilities such as parking, lunchroom and toilets, thus cutting the startup costs of each of them. Enterprise incubators differ from serviced offices in the provision of business advice and training in management and bookkeeping skills. They help people who may have a viable business idea to bring it into reality through assisting them with business plans, seeking finance and marketing.

6. Private tuition

Many craft, sport and performance skills are taught through private tuition. There are increasing numbers of workshops and courses being run privately, particularly in personal growth and hobby skills. These skills are often not taught at formal educational institutions because there is a limited market for them. However, given the right resources, many of them could be transferred to enterprises.

7. Learning Exchange

A learning exchange involves skilled community members volunteering their time to share those skills. It is similar to the Skillshare programme but Learning Exchanges do not aim to teach only employable skills. Usually the emphasis on hobby, craft or do-it-yourself level. A Learning Exchange could become the basis for a LETS system, a Skillshare programme or a community learning venue.

8. Community lifeskills education.

Many of the skills used in daily life are passed down to children by family and friends. They are practical skills such as how to bake a cake or change a tyre, as well as social skills such as how to communicate clearly.

Skills are usually divided into three major types: the ability to work with people (entrepreneurial and social), with things (technical and trade) or with information (academic and communication). The lists that follow provide a template from which community developers can begin to identify and assess the presence or absence of skills. The lists are made up of generic skill titles which can be extracted from any task.

1. Working with people Every person gains some level of ability in working with people through their upbringing and schooling. These skills are often unrecognised by society and even by the people who have them. For example, a woman who has organised a large wedding will have skills in planning; time scheduling; dealing with caterers, printers, dressmakers, florists and clergy; interior decoration; and most probably negotiation and conflict resolution amongst family members. Neither she nor most of her relatives would recognise these as transferable skills which she may be able to use in a workplace.
Entrepreneurial skills Assess strengths and weaknesses Cope with stress and tension Make decisions Plan time and energy Carry out agreed responsibilities Negotiate Deal with power and authority- taking instructions, supervising Solve problems and resolve conflict- diverting, persuading Evaluate your own and others' performance Communicate clearly both verbally and non verbally	Skills with groups and organisations Entertaining others through art, music or theatre Coaching teams, teaching groups Motivating or influencing groups Leading Managing, delegating tasks Facilitating group activities, resolving conflicts Selling ideas or things	Skills with individuals Tutoring Counselling, advising Mentoring, empowering Diagnosing Healing body or mind Selling ideas or things
2 Working with things Any enterprise will need some level of technical or trade skills to carry out its operations. The rural sector relies heavily on "working with things" so these skills will be well supplied in rural communities. Community sustainability also requires support skills such as repair and maintenance of tools and equipment as well as of the public infrastructure, skills which are usually available in country towns.
Skills with raw materials Extracting and mining minerals, logging Processing and refining minerals, sawmilling, spinning and weaving textiles Crafting objects, pottery, woodcarving, cabinet-making, sewing, smithing Painting, preserving, sanding, polishing Maintaining water and soil quality Preserving wilderness Skills with machines, tools and equipment Manufacturing components Assembling components, building, bricklaying, carpentry Maintaining, cleaning, repairing and restoring Disassembling and recycling components or materials	Skills with living things Growing crops, forestry, plant propagation Gardening, landscaping, pruning Breeding and raising livestock Veterinary, maintaining plant health Wildlife preservation Harvesting, transporting and storing crops Slaughtering and meat processing Canning, freezing, distilling, fermenting or drying produce Cooking and baking food	Skills with the body Sports, motor skills Precision work, fine motor skills, using keyboards Physiotherapy, massage, chiropractic Dance, mime, acrobatics, gymnastics
3 Working with information and ideas These academic skills are taught in the formal education sector. They are increasingly dominating the workplace as the "information revolution" takes hold. For a community to maintain its viability into the future it is vital to develop and promote information skills. These are the tools the community uses to detect, predict and respond to changing circumstances.
Gathering or creating information Researching existing information Interviewing Studying and observing Recording- written, on film, on audio Imagining, inventing Designing, programming Expressing and communicating through writing, art or music	Managing information Copying and comparing Analysing Classifying Compiling, synthesising, simplifying, editing Evaluating Computing, numeracy, accounting Keeping records, filing, databases Archiving Accessing information	Using information Designing Planning Programming Problem solving Recommending actions

CONTENTS

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Bolles R.N. (1991)The 1991 What Color is Your Parachute?Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California.

Wildman P. (1992)Community Economic Development Series No.1-5 Prosperity Press, PO Box 74, Nundah, Qld 4012.

Wildman P., Moore R., Baker G. & Wadley D. (1990)Push from the Bush: Revitalisation strategies for smaller rural towns Urban Policy and Research Vol. 8 No. 2 p51-59

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