Dr Stephen Hollings, Director of Sales Strategy, News Limited Addresses the Skillaroos.

Dr Stephen Hollings of News Limited addressed the CareerOne Skillaroos at the AIS in Canberra on June 22, 2009.  Below is the inspiring speech he delivered.

Senator the Honourable Mark Arbib, Minister for Employment Participation and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery, Mr Jim Barron, Deputy Chair World Skills Australia, Mr Mark Callaghan, CEO of World Skills Australia, other members of Parliament, Ladies and Gentleman and most importantly Team Australia, The Skillaroos.

Good morning to you all.

This morning marks the culmination of a very significant weekend here at the Australian Institute of Sport - one that is worthy of record in the maturing of our nation. Over the years so many of Australia's very best athletes have passed through this organisation. And the very best of them have proved to be the world's best in so many of their chosen fields.

And Australia has been rightly proud of them.

This weekend, the CareerOne Team Australia has joined them - a team that has been honed like all our sporting teams through rigorous local, regional and national competition. It, too, is composed of eager young Australians from a myriad of different backgrounds. It, too, is composed of young Australians so skilful that I have no doubt that there are future world champions within their ranks.

It is a team that excels not with a ball, or a racquet or a bat but with a trowel or a spanner or pliers or in kitchens, or with flowers or hair dyes or sophisticated pieces of manufacturing machinery. And for them to be here is I think an absolutely fitting use of the facilities - and I hope the start of a recognition throughout Australia that the Skillaroos rightly sit alongside any and all of our elite national sporting teams.

Having had the privilege of watching these young men and women in national competition, I am in no doubt at all that what World Skills Australia does is highlight true world class excellence in skills and these young people before us today have that in spades.

Unfortunately the global financial recession has led to organisations cutting back everywhere but particularly on marketing and sponsorship and we have all had to take hard decisions in our businesses. But there are some things you must support.

CareerOne is one of Australia's principal job boards and a joint venture between News Limited and Monster, the US based leader in job boards internationally. At CareerOne we have now supported World Skills for over two years and to us there can be few worthier causes than assisting these wonderful ambassadors for Australia in such worthwhile international endeavours. CareerOne is extremely proud of being able to be here and support the CareerOne Team Australia as it is presented with its uniforms.

Sport provides much to our nation - let's be honest, it makes us feel great to see Australians winning, it makes us prize devotion and endeavour, the value of competition and encourages us all to meet the challenges in our lives. It provides us with role models, encourages us to prize team dynamics and much, much more. But dare I say in these hallowed sporting halls that the inherent skill of the sportsperson often add little to the nation as a whole. The ability to play cricket or hockey or basketball for example, is not in itself an innately nation building skill.

Yet with these athletes before us today - and make no mistake they are every bit athletes by my definition - the training they undertake and the competition they engage in assures them of such status - these elite athletes who are the CareerOne Team Australia Skillaroos offer us much more. They too will make us feel great when we see them competing and no doubt some of them winning. We will see their devotion, their endeavour, their discipline and the way they approach competition will inspire us.

But these elite athletes are also elite craftsmen and women and their inherent skills are also nation building skills - they possess what Australia needs to create a strong nation with a strong economy going forward - and where better to acknowledge that than here in Canberra.

There has been much political debate about Australia's response to the global financial crisis but I think there is widespread agreement about the value of using these times for Governments to promote large nation building infrastructure projects.

What is often forgotten is that if we are to deliver these infrastructure projects we will need so many of the skills represented here within this Team Australia. And with many of these projects the application of university developed skills is not possible without the appropriate vocational skills resources in place. It is these which form the bedrock skills base for these projects.

We often comment when talking about infrastructure on just how ground breaking the Snowy Mountains scheme was for its time, but the far reaching nature of it becomes so much more apparent now when we seek solutions to climate change, because the Snowy Mountains Scheme produces environmentally sound energy. Going forward green industries will be built around many of the skill sets found in today's Team Australia. While others will drive forward the tourism and hospitality sectors, which form such important parts of the modern Australian economy and earn so many tourist dollars for us.

The Skillaroos will be like other elite athletes, their time in international competition will be pretty short but unlike other athletes their time of application of their world class skills will not diminish at all as the years go by - they will continue to use them. They will, I am sure, develop successful careers take on apprentices and train people and many of them will build businesses that will employ others and further allow the application of their skills to the good of the country.

And if we don't want to face the skills shortages in the future, that bedevilled us before we went into this global downturn, then it is incumbent upon us to ensure that these world class young people in front of us today are seen as role models in every school in Australia, so that all of our young people strive for greatness and understand what can be achieved through following a career in the vocational skills area.

In everything that we do in our lives, there can be no greater goal or challenge than the pursuit of excellence. These young men and women are engaged in the ultimate pursuit of excellence in skills for this country and there can be no better place in Australia to be this morning than with them. At CareerOne we have great pride in supporting them on their march to excellence and world recognition and in believing that these are young Australians who are very worthy, Ladies and Gentlemen, of your support and your acclamation as they go forward to represent their country.

Dr Stephen Hollings
Director of Sales Strategy
News Limited
(former CEO, CareerOne Pty Ltd)