OzRob

I don't normally come to this forum as I am emigrating (hopefully) from Perth to Canada. In the local rag today there is an article claiming that the state will be short of 100 000 workers over the next 6 years. I hope the information is of some use to somebody. I've pasted the article below.


Wanted: 100,000 extra workers

SIMON PENN

An extra 20,000 workers will be needed every year until 2010 to meet employment demand, according to the most extensive research yet into the skills crisis facing WA.

The study commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA found that government strategies to deal with the crisis are failing and the booming resource sector will not have enough tradespeople to finish major projects.

It also found the shortfall in the key engineering and fabrication and electrical trades would grow to more than 3300 tradespeople by 2009.

The failure has prompted the CCI, the Chamber of Minerals and Energy and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association to develop their own programs.

In the broader workforce, the report predicted an extra 20,000 employees would need to be found each year up to 2010 to fill the expected growth in demand.

The research was conducted by Monash University on behalf of the CCI and examined both the expected demand for labour and the supply of labour expected to be available.

CCI chief executive John Langoulant said there needed to be an immediate 30 per cent increase in the number of people taking up apprenticeships in mechanical and fabrication trades and a 15 per cent increase in electrical trades apprenticeships.

The report found WA had a lower take-up rate of apprenticeships than other States. The ageing of the trades workforce meant the rate of workers retiring was increasing and the number of 20-44 year olds working in trades was declining because people were either withdrawing or moving to other occupations.

WA was also getting just 7.6 per cent of the skilled migrants coming to Australia, compared with Victoria which led the nation with 50.7 per cent.

The research also found that many of the skilled migrants arriving in the State were not taking up their trades after they arrived.

The shortfall in engineering and fabrication was expected to be almost 2200 by 2008 with only 75 per cent of 3200 apprentices finishing their training expected to enter the trade and 530 to come from migration.

The State will be short 1150 electrical tradespeople in the same period.

Mr Langoulant said the shortfall would never be met from within WA and the obvious answer to short-term shortages was importing skilled people from outside the State who could also impart their skills to locals.

The CCI, CME and APPEA have combined to develop an industry-driven strategy to tackle the problem.

"What industry does not want are measures imposed on employers such as a government levy to raise money for government-driven training," Mr Langoulant said. "This is not the answer - it invariably leads to waste and bureaucracy without producing meaningful outcomes."

Education and Training Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich said she was confident the initiatives she had already put in place would help meet the shortages.

She said a task force created to address the problem was due to report soon about which apprenticeships and traineeships could be shortened to get skilled workers in the workplace sooner.

"There is no reason an apprenticeship has to be four years," she said.

bridiej

Thanks for sharing

Anne4Terry

Thanks for that OzRob.

The reason "that many of the skilled migrants arriving in the State are not taking up their trades after they arrived" is because our UK qualifications don't mean diddlysquat and you have to jump through hoops just to get back to the bottom of the ladder that you have spent the last 20 years working your way up

Just curiosity....why are you leaving Perth for Canada?

bridiej

Very true!

Muzza04

I agree...if they overhaul the buearocratic( sp?) red tape for most trades then there would be less need for importing more skilled migrants.

there must be at least 20,000 in WA already who have given up and gone onto other vocations or left.

So hey presto...tweak the red tape and your on the way to solving the problem.

bridiej

Let's hope the tweak the red tape AFTER me and Anne have our visas then!

OzRob

I should have known that somebody would ask.. For me it's a lifestyle decision. I think that Perth is a great place to live. However, I spend a lot of time away from Perth, both for work (I've been to the UK twice this year for work!) and pleasure. I love spending my spare time in mountains climbing, skiing, walking and biking. Anybody who has been to Perth will tell you that Perth is flat and there is certainly no snow. I hope to live in the Rockies and travel much shorter distances to get to work.

I'm disappointed to hear that skilled workers encounter barriers when they immigrate to Australia. No doubt it costs us dearly, especially when there is a skills shortage such as at the present time.

Muzza04

Tweak the red tape... 1 million - 1 chance.....no chance...too much money for the bureaucrats, the tafes and jobsworth to LOSE.

Anne4Terry

Ironic isn't it that us Westerners look upon the sun, sea and sand etc as oujr dream, and yet yourself drained (possibly)of that lifestyle looks to the hills and snow etc that we moan about What work do you do? I believe the Perth is not the place to be if you are into IT or maybe academic My youngest son (12) is very bright and an excellent mathemetician, which he wants to use as his career somehow, and I do sometimes wonder if he will be leaving Perth as he gets older and is trying to carve himself out a career. A tradesman he will never be, can't even change a light bulb or boil an egg

Good luck in your venture

Amazulu

Australia didn't invent the jobsworth mentality but they have certainly refined it & made it their own.