Foreword

NSW is faced with an ageing population and an ageing workforce.

NSW Government agencies are faced with changes in the demand for their services as the population ages. Demand is expected to increase for some, and decline for others. The agencies also have an increasingly aged workforce.

This brings new management challenges and the risks to agencies include:

§ the loss of large numbers of people and their associated knowledge and skills to retirement over a short period of time

§ the need to replace this loss at a time of contracting labour growth, resulting in an increasingly competitive labour environment

§ higher levels of attrition amongst younger workers with the potential for escalating rates of attrition as the baby boomer generation retires.

This audit examines how one large agency, the NSW Department of Education and Training, is managing the impact of an ageing teacher workforce on the services it delivers.

In 2003-04, 47 per cent of teachers were aged 45-64, the highest proportion of mature age workers in any occupation. We wanted to see what this would look like in future years. Departmental aggregate projections indicating an oversupply overall in schools can mask shortages at specific schools and in specific subject areas, such as mathematics and science. Projections for TAFE NSW Institutes typically only look forward a year.

The report follows a previous audit report that looked at another critical area. Our December 2006 report on Attracting, Retaining and Managing Nurses in Hospital reviewed the efforts of NSW Health in managing the supply of nursing resources at four major hospitals.

I believe it will help to inform agencies of better practice, at a time when the availability, efficiency and effectiveness of human capital are receiving increased attention.

Peter Achterstraat

Auditor-General

February 2008