Be a part of developing our Central West Queensland Arts, Cultural and Creative Industries Workforce Plan
With a focus on industry-led, community centred approaches to drive local solutions to workforce challenges, RAPAD is hosting community workshops across the region in July 2025. The Grow Your Own Regional Workforce model is about looking at the workforce that is available locally and upskilling, reskilling and developing them to address the workforce needs collaboratively and locally.
We want to hear your insights into the industry and those of your community, focusing on workforce skills and priorities.
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Regional Community Workshops
Friday 5 September: 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Barcoo, Boulia and Diamantina: please join us online
Via Microsoft Teams
Please register to attend the workshop in person or online: bit.ly/CWQGrowYourOwn-Workshops
A link to join via Microsoft Teams will be sent following registration.
This workshop aims to support feedback from our far western communities in Boulia, Diamantina and Barcoo shires, and follows in-person and online sessions hosted in July in Alpha, Aramac, Barcaldine, Blackall, Jericho, Longreach, Muttaburra, Tambo and Winton.
Missed a workshop or can’t make this one in person or online? You can provide your feedback at our online survey: https://forms.rapad.com.au/gyo-survey
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Who is Jobs Queensland?
Jobs Queensland provides strategic advice to the Queensland Government on future workforce planning and development. Their future-focused and place-based work and engagement brings together industry, regions, employers and the community to identify and address future workforce demands.
Why the arts, cultural and creative industries in CWQ?
Central Western Queensland has a rich and diverse arts, cultural and creative heritage shaped by its striking landscape and the resilient of its communities. The region’s creative industries are broad and multifaceted, encompassing a mix of full-time employment, business ownership, volunteerism and leisure-based participation. Arts, culture and creativity are deeply woven into the social, economic and environmental fabric of the region, making a significant contribution to community identity, wellbeing and resilience.
Research by the Regional Australia Institute highlights a clear link between the presence of creative industries in small to mid-sized towns and improved perceptions of liveability. This underscores that workforce planning in the arts, cultural and creative industries in CWQ is not only important for the industry itself, but also vital to the long-term sustainability and vibrancy of the region.
Workforce planning will help address a range of industry-specific challenges. The industry encompasses a highly diverse array of roles, from individual practitioners to larger organisations employing many people. A strategic workforce development plan will support this diversity while also responding to persistent issues, including the high levels of unpaid and voluntary work and the strongly gendered nature of the workforce, where women are significantly overrepresented. These dynamics raise important considerations regarding remuneration, recognition, visibility and the broader value placed on creative work.
The plan will also explore opportunities to build a more inclusive industry, one that better reflects and supports First Nations communities and people with disability.
A locally led workforce plan, grounded in regional strengths and aspirations, is essential. By leveraging the unique landscape, cultural richness, remoteness and strong community spirit of CWQ, the plan can attract, retain and support a skilled creative workforce, from both within the region and beyond. This is a powerful opportunity to ‘grow our own’ workforce and secure the future of arts, culture and creativity across the region.
Why we need your input
It’s important to develop a workforce plan which is reflective of the needs of the industry and communities in our region. To achieve this, we want to hear your insights into the industry and those of your community, focussing on workforce skills and priorities.
This is just the beginning, and we want to know more! We look forward to sharing further insights from our research and hearing directly from you as we develop a workforce plan that reflects our region, our communities, our people and arts, cultural and creative industries in CWQ.
