Forestry Industry Reference Committees

The Australian Industry and Skills Committee (AISC) is pleased to announce the members of the three Forestry Industry Reference Committees (IRCs) following the review of the structure and membership. The AISC thanks all those who provided feedback on the structure and nominated for a position on these IRCs. The AISC welcomed the extent of interest in the Forestry IRCs and acknowledged the very strong field of nominations from across the sector. Further information on the IRC review process can be found on the IRC review page.

The Australian forest and wood products industry covers a diverse array of sectors from forest growing and management, harvesting and haulage, sawmilling and processing, timber manufactured products, wood panel and board production, through to timber building solutions and merchandising. The industry is an important contributor to the Australian economy.

The industry includes 13,261 forestry and manufacturing businesses and 1,176 timber wholesalers, who employ close to 120,000 people across the industry value chain as estimated by the industry.

The Forestry IRCs will have responsibility for national training package qualifications relevant to the Forest and Forest Products Training Package.

The membership provides strong industry coverage and expertise to support training package development for the forest and wood products industry. The members have extensive experience in, and knowledge of, their industry sector with the capacity to proactively apply these attributes to the work of the IRCs.

While it was not possible to include every person that nominated on the IRC, there are still opportunities to be involved and to have your views considered in any future reviews of the FWP – Forest and Wood Products Training Package. The IRCs will consult widely during any future training package development process and your input into that process would be welcome.
Technical Advisory Committees may also be established to inform future work, and these will include a broad range of stakeholders with technical and specific industry knowledge.

The AISC has approved the following members for the Forestry IRCs:

The first meeting of the IRC will occur in February 2017 where a chair will be elected.

The Forestry IRCs are currently supported by the Skills Service Organisation (SSO), Skills Impact.

Further information about the role of IRCs and how they operate can be found in the IRC Operating Framework.