From field to fabric to furniture, a skilled textile, clothing and footwear industry with local producers and manufacturers, is a crucial part of the value chain, supporting the Australian economy and producing essential items used every day.
Click across the tabs to view active and completed project stages. Consultation takes place at every stage of the project.
The Textile Clothing and Footwear (TCF) industry is undergoing a significant post-pandemic transformation, changing the nature of workforce occupations and skills.
The 2024 Skills Insight Workforce Plan revealed opportunities and challenges impacting the TCF industry. Increasing consumer interest in locally made, ethical and sustainable products is providing opportunities for businesses to focus on quality craftsmanship and strong technical skills, which may shift the skills needed of the current and future workforce. The growth in textile repair, reuse and recycling is also predicted to have a significant impact on the industry, including the development of new skills in eco-friendly production and design.
This research project will seek to collect further information about the current TCF workforce and whether the qualifications in the national Textiles, Clothing and Footwear Training Package meet workforce needs.
We will consult with industry stakeholders, training and education providers, and unions to make connections and gather insights. The project team will also undertake analysis and mapping of existing industry resources and strategies for skilling, upskilling and re-skilling opportunities.
A subject matter expert working group of key stakeholders will be established to help guide the research.
The insights gained from this research project will be used to identify future JSC activities and projects, to support the industry in meeting its workforce needs.
Get involved
Stakeholder participation from all sectors within the textiles, clothing and footwear industry across Australia is encouraged.
Contact Nina at [email protected] or 1800 177 001 to share your insights or find out more about the project.
3.885 billion
Industry Value Added (IVA)
31.467 billion
Domestic Value
Project Scope
The project will include desktop research, surveys, written feedback, forums, focus groups and one-on-one interviews with stakeholders as appropriate.
Stakeholder participation from the Australian TCF industry across all states and territories is encouraged.
These include areas such as:
This research project will:
Project Timeline
Project Team
Paul Cavicchia
Project Manager
[email protected]
Nina Laxmandas
Stakeholder Engagement Manager
[email protected]
Adele Moreira
Senior Project Administrator
We are consulting with stakeholders to identify the opportunities and challenges facing the textiles, clothing and footwear workforce and to assess if the national qualifications meet their needs.
The project team has conducted extensive desktop research to understand the current industry landscape and included the available data in a Preliminary Desktop Research Report. To add to this research, we are gathering qualitative data through consultation meetings and surveys. The textiles, clothing and footwear industry is diverse with many sub-sectors, including new and emerging ones. Real-world insights from industry, training providers and other stakeholders are essential to gaining a full picture of the workforce challenges and opportunities.
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Share your insights
Your participation in the survey and consultation meetings will help:
Feedback and insights from all sectors within the textiles, clothing and footwear industry across Australia is encouraged.
Schedule a consultation meeting
Stakeholder interviews are underway, providing an opportunity for you to share your perspectives on industry challenges and suggest impactful solutions. We encourage project participants to bring their own industry insights to support our analysis.
You can schedule a consultation meeting via site visits, online or over the phone, with broad consultation taking place from August 2024 – February 2025.
Please contact Nina Laxmandas at [email protected] or 1800 177 001 to schedule a consultation meeting.
Complete the survey
There are two short surveys – one for industry and one for training providers. The survey will take 10-15 minutes to complete.
The industry survey will gather information from industry, unions and other related stakeholders about organisation or business size and operations, employee statistics, workforce labour shortages, and skills and training needs.
The training provider survey will gather information about the qualifications on scope and how these align to skills requirements and industry trends. It will also identify training delivery challenges and opportunities.
Insights gathered through this project will be used to identify future JSC activities and projects, to support the industry in meeting its workforce needs.
Consultation so far
A Subject Matter Expert Working Group (SMEWG) has been formed to help guide the project and extensive desktop research has been undertaken. Findings from the desktop research can be found in the Preliminary Desktop Research Report.
ForestWorks Paul Cavicchia (Project Manager) and Nina Laxmandas (Stakeholder Engagement Manager) have met with a range of stakeholders including manufacturers and training providers for on-site consultation meetings. They have gathered many valuable insights which highlight common industry challenges. Discussions have also revealed emerging opportunities within the circular economy, which will be included in the final project report along with industry case studies.
Nina and Paul with Sarah Brown, General Manager at Loop Upcycling in Perth, WA.
Paul and Nina with Rio Christyanto a Humphrey Law & Co.
Rio Christyanto showing Paul the fibre winding machine.
Nina and Paul travelled to Perth, WA for consultation meetings from 26 – 30 August 2024. One of several on-site visits was to Loop Upcycling where they met with Sarah Brown, the General Manager. They were very impressed by Loop’s training and employment program which focuses on supporting people who may otherwise face barriers to employment. Loop support people experiencing or who have experienced homelessness or domestic abuse, people with a disability, migrants, refugees, mature aged workers and more. They offer foundational skills and assist employees to progress to further employment opportunities if they wish.
In Melbourne, the project team visited Humphrey Law & Co where they met with Manager, Rio Christyanto. Rio provided valuable industry insights and gave them a tour of the facilities. In the image above, Rio is showing Paul the fibre winding machine which combines a few different fibres, twisting them into the types of yarn required for various products.
This stage has not yet commenced.
As part of consensus gathering, we check our work with stakeholders to confirm that solutions are in line with expectations.
This Skills Insight JSC project is being managed with the support of ForestWorks as part of their collaborative partnership with Skills Insight. ForestWorks has an enduring and strong connection working with the forestry, timber, paper, fibre and furnishing industries and have been engaged by Skills Insight to deliver this project in partnership.