In a fluid and rapidly changing workforce, vocational education and training (VET) plays a pivotal role in supporting job readiness for entrants into a career. An important component as part of the VET ecosystem is host employers, who are often unnoticed but powerful elements of the ecosystem. For companies that take on student placements, there are dual benefits: providing work-ready graduates while also acquiring new talent and perspectives. At SkilTrak, we champion these partnerships to ensure an effective transition from education to industry.
Recognising the VET Landscape
VET is more than just going to class to develop technical skills, vocational education includes obtaining skills, knowledge, and background experience that has practical application in identifiable real-life contexts. In Australia, we are more regularly seeing work-based training emerge and the important role host employers play in providing experiential components. Students today are gaining competencies in practical contexts, they are not simply learning theory; they are applying their knowledge in real work contexts in different areas of study, from allied health to commercial cookery, early childhood education, and community services.
What is a Host Employer?
A host employer is defined as the organisation that provides students with on-the-job training relating to their qualification. For students, their work placement in organisations is an important experiential aspect of their course of study and will often be the starting point of their careers. No matter how big or small, host employers create workplaces where learners see behaviours, develop skills, and demonstrate actions that will define their career.
1. Defining and Educating Future Professionals
Companies allowing students to experience various learning opportunities directly impact the professional behaviour of students about forming a safe and successful workforce. Host employers are defining the standards of behaviour and professionalism and sharing the knowledge that can only be found through experience. With the help of SkilTrak, we will make the onboarding process easy so that students and their business partners can focus on onboarding effectively from day one.
2. Young minds/fresh ideas/energy
Students often arrive eager to impress and want to absorb as much knowledge as possible. This eagerness benefits local businesses and organisations by revitalising workplace environments with new ideas and innovation brought in by students. Businesses will either uncover new technologies that their students are familiar with or gain insights into emerging industry trends.
3. Strategic workforce planning
In industries facing persistent skill shortages, student placements offer a means for early identification and subsequent growth of the talent pool. Host employers can train students within their own workflows and organisational needs, minimising hiring costs and enhancing employee retention over the long term.
4. Enhancing Industry Image
Being known as a supportive and inclusive employer that hosts students only enhances a brand's image and builds trust. It shows commitment to workforce planning and social responsibility. SkilTrak and industry partners are more than happy to show support to the industry partners through redistributing it over social media, shout-outs, podcasts, etc.
SkilTrak - Closing the Gap
The idea of placement can be an intimidating experience for both students and employers. This is where SkilTrak can help. SkilTrak is a placement management platform that allows us to facilitate the placement process to be quick, compliant, and efficient by managing student and host employer matching, hour tracking, reports, and much more.
How We Support Host Employers
• Easy Matching: We'll match students' interests and outcomes of their courses based on placements in the necessary fields for industries
• Easy Compliance: SkilTrak track any required documents, timesheets, and assessments in real-time.
• On-going Support: SkilTrak provide all relevant support to facilitate the process and ensure the placement is successful by combining effective allocation, documentation and communication.
• Recognition & Community: We provide host employers with recognition through blogs, newsletters, and event recognition to acknowledge their contribution to the education process.
The Larger Vision: Nation Building Through Skills
Engaging host employers in VET is not simply good for business it is also a way to nation build. If we invest in skills today, we will be developing a workforce which is more capable, more agile and better prepared for what lies ahead. SkilTrak is bridging education and enterprise, creating possible placements.
A Call to Action
If you are an employer that would like to make a difference, becoming a host employer for a student could be the best decision you make.
Become part of SkilTrak, and we can redefine vocational education together. Let's develop the talent of tomorrow.
