Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
Racing Australia, working with national racing authorities, Godolphin Australia and Thoroughbred Industry Careers (TIC) have partnered to form a national Australian Thoroughbred Workforce Development Forum.
The Forum was originally established following the 2019 International Forum for Education hosted by Godolphin in Newmarket, England.
It gathered thoroughbred breeding, racing and education professionals from six countries and addressed challenges such as inclusion, attracting newcomers, education, workforce enrichment and community engagement, resulting in the formation of a global alliance and commitment to collaborate.
Racing Australia initiated and hosted an Australian-based Forum in late January, 2020 with peak stakeholder representatives. Planning for the Forum commenced in late 2020, with it originally planned to occur in February, 2021 and will now take place on Thursday, April 22 and Friday, April 23.
Strategies to 'Obtain, Train and Retain' staff will be further developed as recommendations and documented outcomes of the Forum
Focus on staffing
The objective of the Australian Thoroughbred Workforce Development Forum is to create and deliver in-principle agreement on strategies to secure and develop the 75,000-plus people needed to sustain our thoroughbred racing and breeding industry with a focus on Obtain, Train and Retain.
The strategies to Obtain, Train and Retain will be further developed as recommendations and documented outcomes of the Forum.
Those outcomes are to be taken by Forum representatives to their peak organisations for review and consideration.
Matters relevant directly to racing, will be reviewed by the Racing Australia Board who will then in conjunction with the Principal Racing Authorities, and a national stakeholder working group, determine what to proceed with and how to implement the Forum recommendations and outcomes.
On behalf of the industry, the Racing and Breeding Industry Reference Committee (RGR IRC) recently completed a review and update for the Australian Industry Skills Committee (AISC) to the RGR Racing and Breeding Training Package.
The Forum provides among other objectives an opportunity to build upon the work of the IRC to address urgent and emerging industry skills issues.
The April 2021 forum will be delivered in a COVID-19 safe manner. The primary location of the forum will be Sydney.
