Australia Post announces $20m training investment
Australia Post has announced it will invest $20m in training staff in growth areas such as parcels, logistics, retail and digital services over the next three years. “The Future Skills investment will equip our people with the skills they need to work in the new economy as letter volumes decline yet online shopping grows rapidly,” said Australia Post’s CEO and managing director, Ahmed Fahour.
“The world is changing and we must move with it but we must take our staff with us. While some areas such as letters will decline overtime other areas such as parcels will continue to grow.”
The $20m investment comes just four months after Fahour announced a new business renewal program, Future Ready, which sees the organisation rely less heavily on its traditional letters business, and expand into new business growth areas such as retail, eServices and parcels areas.
“Developing the skills of our staff is a key part of Future Ready and it is of vital importance as the business changes to meet the challenges we all face as a result of letter volume declines,” said Fahour.
“While electronic communications such as email is the letter’s worse enemy, it is our parcel business’ best friend with online shopping growing rapidly.”
Australia Post says that the $20m Future Skills investment represents how the organisation can fulfill its commitment to retain and redeploy staff, and enhance employees’ skill base in the face of a changing business environment.
“Our staff working in mail centres, delivering the mail, driving trucks and working in our outlets know better than anyone that we are seeing declining mail volumes and understand why we must cultivate new sources of revenue,” said Fahour.
