The forestry industry is hopeful a new training program will avert the looming skills crisis that threatens the sector in Western Australia.
The forestry industry is hopeful a new training program will avert the looming skills crisis that threatens the sector in Western Australia.
Primarily funded by industry, with assistance from the Federal Government, the Forest Training Centre WA has been established in Albany to address the skills shortage and instil some confidence in the forestry sector.
The centre, which will cost the industry $8 million over the next six years, will offer eight-week training courses, educating students about the industry and training them to operate heavy machinery.
The first course of six students will start in Albany in the next two weeks.
Forest Training Centre chief executive and senior trainer Andrew Rodgers said that, before receiving the Federal Government grant for $1.4 million, the industry relied on state TAFE colleges to provide operators with the required technical training, but these had failed to be fully effective.
“The position is now relatively critical,” he said. “Traditional training providers have offered courses but all have focused on theory rather than practical training.
“The courses haven’t suited the end result.
“Because of the specific nature of the training and its high capital costs, the forest industry was keen to reclaim the training initiative from state providers.
“To this end the forestry industry, inclusive of most of the major organisations, has formed a not-for-profit company that will own and operate the training centre.
“More than 25 businesses have each paid a $10,000 membership to join the company while the equipment dealers have offered significant sponsorship to the centre.”
At the end of the eight-week course trainees will have spent between 200 and 250 hours on machinery and be reasonably prepared to enter the workforce, Mr Rodgers said.
And they will be paid a wage of $640 a week
Mr Rodgers estimates that more than 300 skilled positions will become available during the next four years, with the bulk of those vacancies arising in 2007 and 2008.
“These estimates are conservative, based on the estimates of area size, various harvesting methods and the average harvesting yields,” he said.
“The training centre is designed to train 24 harvest operators and 12 forwarder operators a year based on the current structure.”
Mr Rodgers said that while this would address the basic skills needed, it would not provide an oversupply.
He said the Forest Training Centre WA would not have been possible without the $1.4 million Federal Government grant.
“We applied for grant funding under the Australian Government Forestry Assistance Program for WA,” Mr Rodgers said.
The money, which will be used to purchase two harvesters and a forwarder, was provided on an 80:20 structure. It means the forestry industry will need to contribute more than $8 million during the next six years.
“For this reason it was essential to gain general forestry industry acceptance of the proposal before it had the capacity to proceed,” Mr Rodgers said.
“While the Federal Government grant allowed for the equipment purchase, the industry has provided the operational income.
“This amounts to $1 million per year and comes from three major sources – the product produced, placement fees for trainees, and a training levy as paid by processors.”
Mr Rodgers said the training levy would be lower in the first year but the shortfall would be covered by centre memberships and industry player sponsorship.
“These two sources of income have raised $470,000 for both establishment costs and initial operational expenses while a cash flow is established,” he told WA Business News.
The initial focus of the training centre will be plantation forestry, however the longer-term plan is to provide training into the broader based forestry industry including softwood and native hardwood harvesting.
