Construction workers are second only to farmers, foresters and fisheries workers when it comes to self-employment. In a highly-competitive, transient and tender-driven market, finding work can be an endless source of stress for tradies.
Recognising that as many as 10,000 building and construction personnel would work on Sydney’s landmark Barangaroo urban renewal project over the course of a decade, developer Lendlease has partnered with TAFE NSW and the Property Services Industry Skills Council (PSISK) to create an on-site learning and skills development hub for the project.
The Barangaroo Skills Exchange (BSX) gives construction workers the opportunity to build upon and learn new skills – from literacy and numeracy, to IT, construction trade skills and leadership. The aim is to help improve workers’ long term employment prospects while boosting their confidence and engagement while they work at Barangaroo.
“We do a hard job, we are like footballers, we make pretty good money but we know it is for a limited time, and retirement is still a long way off,” says one worker.
“The BSX is providing me an opportunity to set myself up for the future, I have a lot of skills that I would like to pass on to the next generation. For the past twelve months I have been undertaking the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment with the eventual aim of becoming a WorkCover assessor in high risk areas such as crane driving, rigging and dogging.”
