According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, around three million working age Australians struggle with low literacy and/or numeracy skills making them high-risk for poor employment outcomes. The government-funded program Foundation Skills for Your Future is tackling this issue by encouraging businesses across Australia to upskill their staff by improving their language, literacy, numeracy and digital skills.

Industry-specific workplace training is developed together with employers to deliver tailored programs that meet individual learning and development needs, with the average length of training three months.

“Once a business approaches us for training, our team works closely with managers to identify gaps in their employees’ skill set,” Navitas Skilled Futures executive general manager, Michael Cox, said.

“This allows us to design and deliver a tailored program to improve workforce capability and productivity. The outcome for employees is greater confidence and job satisfaction, which in turn is a competitive advantage for businesses.”

Programs can be delivered onsite or online and are accredited or non-accredited up to the Certificate II level, and employers are encouraged give employees time during work hours to complete the training.

To be eligible, participants must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident aged 15 years and over, have left secondary school education, be employed (or recently unemployed within the past nine months) and not registered with an Australian Government employment service provider.