Not-for-profit jobs revamped in new workforce classifications

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) last week released the new Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA), the first major update since 2006.

The revamp adds about 300 occupations, retires about 250 and lists 1,156 official occupations.

Chief statistician Dr David Gruen said the changes will support “efficient, accurate and informed decision-making by governments, industry and businesses.”

Key changes for the not-for-profit sector

The updated classification introduces new and more detailed job descriptions for roles in aged care, welfare and childcare, incorporates First Nations specific occupations, and adopts gender-inclusive language.

Health and welfare support workers, and carers and aides have been restructured into four new groups, with additional details about tasks, skill levels and qualifications. These groups are:

• community and welfare support workers

• aged care and disability services and support workers

• early childhood educators, child carers and education assistants

• health support workers and assistants.

These roles now fall under the “community and personal service workers” category.

For instance, “community and welfare support workers” are described as providing “community and welfare support, information and services to improve the financial, recreational, child and family safety, housing, employment and social outcomes for individuals and the community”.

Reflecting workplace changes, the former aged or disability carer occupation has been divided into five occupations, including aged care team leader, aged care support worker and disability team leader.

Volunteer advocates are expected to welcome the addition of “volunteer coordinator/manager” as a sub-category in the community and welfare support workers section, after a push to include the listing by Volunteering Australia and state and territory peak bodies, which lodged submissions to the review.

Volunteering Australia CEO Mark Pearce said he was delighted their pleas had been heard.

"Leading and managing volunteers is more than just administration; it requires time, talent, and skill." said Pearce.

"Recognising the importance of volunteer management is a strategic objective in the National Strategy for Volunteering and being included in OSCA will give better visibility to this critical role.

"This change means Volunteer Coordinators are counted in the data used by governments, industry, and businesses to inform our education and training pathways, policy frameworks, and workforce strategies. This can enable better support for Volunteer Coordinators, which means better outcomes for volunteers and communities across Australia."

The two-year, $23.7 million revamp added emerging jobs such as cloud engineer and coffee roaster, dumped outmoded roles such as motion picture projectionist and small offset printer, and removed New Zealand-centric listings such as bungy jump master.

Assistant Treasurer and Charities Minister Andrew Leigh welcomed the project, which he said had “brought together the best of the ABS’s human engagement and data usage” and employed ChatGPT to draft task descriptions which were then “carefully reviewed by humans”.

Speaking at the official launch, Leigh said that emerging jobs included electric vehicle technicians, bush regenerators, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land and sea rangers.

He said the OSCA classifications supported government strategies.

“We've got changes that support the Australian Government's National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children, which include the existing occupation of welfare worker being split in OSCA into several specialised occupations, including family violence practitioner.

“And there's changes in OSCA that support the Australian Government’s initiatives to address the Australia-wide workforce shortage of the early childhood education sector, including the existing ‘childcare worker’ occupation being split into two occupations: early childhood education room leader and early childhood educator.”

Future changes expected to classification

Despite the revamp, some groups – such as fundraisers – will seek further changes to the classifications in future.

Fundraisers remain subsumed under “business, human resource and marketing professionals”, a categorisation that Fundraising Institute Australia (FIA) chief executive Katherine Raskob said underplayed her members’ skills and knowledge.

Raskob had said FIA's four-year campaign for reclassification would address a “critical” skills shortage, but OSCA did not include fundraisers in this round of changes. The FIA is hopeful further changes will be made, after its submission was placed “on a priority list” for further consultation.

“FIA was not expecting fundraiser to be included in the recent reclassification of occupations based on our work with ANZSCO [OSCA] over the past few years where their review noted that that they would need to change the actual structure of the classification to include ‘fundraiser’,” said Raskob.

“While disappointed, FIA has continued to lobby ANZSCO, with whom we have had several meetings and very positive communications, to embrace a change of the structure in order to include this vital professional occupation and role in Australia.”

Raskob said FIA had held further discussions with ANZSCO in October, and ANZSCO had appeared open to considering changes to the classification for ‘fundraiser’ in future releases.

“It’s an exciting development and we’re cautiously optimistic as we await further news on when and how this will progress, all the while keeping our foot on the pedal for this important change for professional fundraising in Australia.

“Hopefully, there will be positive developments early in 2025.”

According to an ABS media statement: “The ABS is committed to regular updates of OSCA and will engage with ongoing consultation and feedback about the occupation classifications in 2025.”

The new classifications will appear in labour market reports from August 2026.

More about the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia