Partnerships for skilling a seasonal workforce

As a group, seasonal workers tend to fall through the formal training net. The temporary nature of their work and the traditional understanding that seasonal work is unskilled has provided little impetus for workers, employers, providers or government to consider formal training. In this qualitative study of two regions, one in Circular Head, Tasmania and the other in Wide Bay-Burnett, Queensland, collaborative arrangements between stakeholders resulted in training benefiting seasonal workers, employers and the regional industry.The study showed that training must be integrated into industry and community processes and planning at a regional level to ensure training is beneficial to and accepted by seasonal workers and employers. This paper explores who was involved in these regional collaborative arrangements, how the collaborative arrangements came into being and how plans were put into action.