Queensland Agriculture Industry Workforce Plan

To address workforce issues experienced in the agriculture sector, and through consultations around the state, both online and in person, the Queensland Farmers’ Federation’s workforce planning and development team heard about the current and emerging workforce issues experienced across the sector. The findings of this consultation informed a strategic five-year strategy – the Queensland Agriculture Industry Workforce Plan 2022-2027 (the Plan).

This plan was developed by the Queensland Farmers’ Federation in partnership with Jobs Queensland and in collaboration with the Rural Jobs and Skills Alliance (RJSA)

THE RESULTS

The Queensland Agriculture Industry Workforce Plan 2022-2027 reflects the findings from robust research and consultation processes.

Watch the video HERE.

Download a copy of the Plan HERE.

For a quick snapshot of what it includes see: Executive Summary and Preview.

The Plan was also informed by the Queensland Agriculture Industry Workforce Environmental Scan.

The Scan highlighted four priority agriculture groups, based on gross value of production (GVP) and employment: grazing (beef cattle and grains), horticulture (fruit and nuts, vegetables, and nurseries), crops (sugar and cotton) and aquaculture.

Four action areas provide focus for the planning process:

Adaptability and business capability – developing entrepreneurship and business capability for innovation and adaptation to change. Fact Sheet.
Workforce attraction and diversity – developing a diverse and inclusive future agriculture workforce. Fact Sheet.
Workforce retention – developing agriculture careers and opportunities and becoming employers of choice. Fact Sheet.
Workforce skilling – developing future workforce skills in agriculture. Fact Sheet.

Why a workforce plan?
Future growth and market opportunities for Queensland agriculture are dependent on a highly trained and skilled workforce. The industry employs over 90,000 people, and commonly experiences difficulties in attracting and retaining skilled workers. As the industry continues to modernise, a skilled and appropriately trained workforce, prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the 21^st century, is critical for the industry to remain competitive and innovative.

A workforce plan is a plan for the future. It will drive action for building the capability of agriculture businesses and their workforce for a contemporary, competitive and adaptable industry. The plan will strategically respond to the many issues that the agriculture industry has reported:
- Managing workforce shortages
- Developing our workforce and adapting to changing skilling and knowledge requirements
- Attracting and retaining a diverse and inclusive workforce
- Up-skilling workers to respond to innovation and technology opportunities
- Engaging with education and training sectors to ensure that their offering meet sector needs
- Ensuring regulatory compliance in an increasingly complex environment
- Identifying and responding to emerging challenges
What is workforce planning?
“Having the right people, in the right place, with the right capabilities at the right time.”

Workforce planning is a process where understanding of the current workforce and research into the future workforce identifies the gaps between what we have today and what we need in five years. It is a future focused approach that lifts thinking out of immediate succession, recruitment and retention needs to preparing strategies to meet the workforce needs for the industry which will become critical in the next few years by:
- Identifying future business directions and workforce needs;
- Analysing and understanding the make-up of the current workforce (through demographic staff profiling, SWOT analysis, environmental scanning etc.);
- Determining the necessary skills, capabilities and competencies required to achieve strategic and operational goals in the future; and
- Developing policies and strategies that will assist in achieving these goals.
The research undertaken during this project will point us towards the critical workforce risks that the plan will address.

Contact

Please contact the workforce planning team for more information

Phone
(07) 3837 4720

Email
workforceplanning@qff.org.au

This Agriculture Workforce Plan Project is proudly supported and funded by the Queensland Government.

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