Australia’s skills shortage crisis shows no signs of abating.

According to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, an incredible 43 per cent of skilled industries – based on 76 occupations continually assessed by the Department – have experienced skills shortages in the past 12 months.

Improving these statistics is one of the motivators behind Sydney-based business Get Qualified Australia. Established in 2010, the company has positioned itself as the country’s leading exponent of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) through Skills Recognition – providing stepping stones to not only a higher skilled workforce, but greater career satisfaction among individuals.

Get Qualified Australia is the brainchild of Adam Wadi, born out of his own successful experience with RPL.

RPL was introduced in Australia via the AQF (Australian Qualifications Framework) in 1993 as a way of any individual’s pre-existing skills, knowledge and experience to be credited towards a formal, nationally-recognised qualification.    

Adam came face-to-face with the process in 2005, when his practical background in hotel management allowed him to quickly and easily obtain an Advanced Diploma in Management through the Australian Business and Retail Academy.

“I was very impressed with how the RPL process worked,” he recalls.

“My years of experience in the hospitality and tourism sector were formally recognised, and my Advanced Diploma started the next phase of my career.”

With a new qualification under his belt, Adam moved into delivering training courses at hotel schools across Australia.  His own positive experience with RPL led to him explaining and recommending it to his friends and colleagues in the hospitality industry, and in a short space of time he referred close to 200 people to the process.

His hospitality career was at its peak, but the entrepreneur saw a new business opportunity on the horizon.

“I saw the scope to partner with a range of Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) to offer people a substantial number of qualification options through RPL,” he says.

Adam was committed to remaining independent and, more importantly, offering a wider range of qualifications across a greater number of industries than existing companies ever before.
Get Qualified Australia’s credentials were evident from its inception, courtesy of partnerships with the Management Institute of Australia – to supply nationally-recognised training courses to candidates – and MEGT, a non-profit organisation that specialises in employment, education, training and apprenticeships.

Adam’s vision pioneered the early days of Get Qualified Australia. The company positioned itself as the country’s leading RPL specialist, but branched out to form partnerships with reputable RTOs to offer a variety of nationally-recognised qualifications through the RPL process.

Across time, Get Qualified Australia began to offer a detailed selection of personally tailored training, staff development and assessment solutions to meet the requirements of individuals and businesses.
Simply, the company is a ‘one stop shop’ that offers a range of educational, training, RPL and Skills Recognition services under the one umbrella.

Among the thousands of Australians to have benefited from GQ Australia’s services is Sydney’s Steve Rodwell, who completed a Certificate IV of Training and Assessment based on the RPL and Skills Recognition process. He now utilises his Management and business background as a Lecturer in Hotels Management and Marketing at the Intercontinental Hotel School.

From its inception, Get Qualified Australia recognised technology as a crucial way of targeting its audience, and implemented a number of online resources to make the entire process as straightforward as possible for candidates.

These resources included a secure e-Learning portal, offering a comprehensive range of learning and assessment options monitored by Get Qualified Australia’s RTO partners, and a series of YouTube tutorials  to explain RPL in plain English.

More than three years later, Get Qualified Australia is the country’s number one RPL and skills recognition specialist. Adam and his team of qualified RPL Skills Recognition Assessors have underpinned the company with exceptional levels of customer service and tangible results.

Through its partnerships with RTOs, Get Qualified Australia now offers access to more than 400 qualifications  across industries such as business, construction, information technology, transport and tourism – and there’s an even bigger picture in mind.

“We’re working towards getting 500 qualifications in the very near future, and 1,000 qualifications by the end of the year,” says Adam.

“There’s near limitless scope for what RPL can offer, from working towards a nationally-recognised qualification in a field you had previously never thought of pursuing a career in, to obtaining a Graduate Diploma to vastly boost your personal and professional development,” says Adam.

“We are proud of our status as Australia’s premier RPL and Skills Recognition specialist, and look forward to further developing our range of qualifications and tailor-made training solutions.”

About Get Qualified Australia

Get Qualified Australia is one of Australia’s leading RPL and Skills Recognition specialists.

Founded in 2010, the company provides a range of Vocational Education and Training (VET) services for local, national and international clients, in line with Partnership Agreements with Registered Training Organisations (RTOs).

Through its RTO partners, Get Qualified Australia offers more than 400 nationally-recognised qualifications in industries such as hospitality, business, construction and trades, information technology, transport and many more.

Get Qualified Australia utilises skills recognition systems developed in consultation with RTOs, VET stakeholders, Industry Skills Councils and key industry groups to offer tailored training, staff development and assessment solutions to individuals and businesses.

www.gqaustralia.com.au

Yusen Logistics offers a full spectrum of integrated logistics functions designed to give customers a better experience.

Japanese-owned company Yusen Logistics, which commenced operations in Australia in its current form on 1 April 2011, is actually a merger of two logistics companies that have operated in Australia for almost 25 years.

The merger between freight forwarder Yusen Air & Sea Service and domestic logistics company NYK Logistics was simply the result of business sense – it occurred when parent company NYK Group realised that, after 2008’s global financial crisis, having one integrated logistics arm was better than two competing ones.

The resulting contract logistics and international freight forwarding company offers a full range of end-to-end supply chain solutions, including ocean freight forwarding, air freight forwarding, customer brokerage and tariff consultancy, as well as supplier management. Its network is similarly comprehensive, linked together by operational bases in 36 countries worldwide.

General manager of business development Grant Gurney has been with Yusen Logistics Australia through the Yusen Air & Sea Service side since 1999 and thus seen it grow from being a “reasonably small freight forwarding company” to a “major player in the market place”.

“Yusen Air & Sea Service opened in 1988 as a fairly small operation in Sydney and Melbourne, offering freight forwarding and customs brokerage services,” he explains. “Since then the business has grown mainly through organic growth, to a stage where we employ close to 100 people in the freight forwarding division. We’ve since opened in Brisbane and our turnover has increased markedly.”

All in one

In the spirit of being a combination of two initially separate companies, Yusen Logistics has ensured none of its services are separate either.

Gurney claims Yusen Logistics’ “total integration of services” is one of its greatest points of difference. “A number of our competitors have the same range of services as we do, however in many cases their different logistics functions are run as separate companies under the one holding company,” he says.

“In Yusen Logistics, all of our functional logistics services come from the one business. This ensures better commercial offerings, better operational service and better administrative procedures, which lead to a better overall experience for our customers in all areas.”

Yusen Logistics’ complete management of processes on the freight forwarding side is supported by 1-Stop Connections, who supplies the information required for its import and export operations. “Our use of 1-Stop includes an important software tool that allows us to make and receive payments from fellow community members, thereby speeding up the exchange of documents and funds without the need to physically transfer paperwork,” Gurney says.

Positive change

Another of Yusen Logistics’ competitive advantages is said to lie in following a philosophy originating from the company’s country of birth.

“Kaizen is a Japanese word that, loosely translated, means ‘change for good’,” Gurney explains. “It is not just a program that we run to fulfil our customer’s expectations around continuous improvement, but a core principle of the way we do business.”

In accordance with the philosophy of Kaizen, Yusen Logistics staff are trained and encouraged to look constantly for ways to improve efficiencies. “In this way we can assure our customers that we are doing everything possible to help them in areas including safety, quality, environment, increasing efficiency and decreasing costs,” says Gurney.

For several years now, Yusen Logistics has also followed a “very strong” environmental policy. “In terms of not just having an environmental policy but in living by it, we would be at least the equal of our competitors, if not ahead of them,” he adds.

Catching the wave

Over the next three-to-five years, Yusen Logistics will focus on further developing its ocean freight forwarding services – a “growing area” according to Gurney. “Down to pressure from consumers to lower costs, a lot of businesses are transitioning from air freight to ocean freight movement – so a large range of products that were formerly transported by air are now moving by ocean,” he explains.

Using this strategy, and supported by its full spectrum of services and a dedication to continuous improvement, Yusen Logistics hopes to weather increasing consumer pressure to achieve “sustainable growth” across all facets of the business. “Our overall objective is to become a top-five international freight-forwarding company within the next three years,” Gurney says. “And it’s tracking in the right direction.”

"Companies exist to solve problems in the world, not to make money…"

The Go Beyond MBA event started as an idea or wish to inspire people to think differently. To become aware of what’s going on in the world (in terms of crisis on economy, poverty, climate and energy) and to challenge them to not only work for themselves but also for a higher purpose. We invented speakers that are actually ‘normal’ people that really make a difference.