THE resources industry should do more to prepare for its own staffing needs, according to a national taskforce that is the latest to forecast a big shortfall in skilled labour as a result of the mining boom.
THE resources industry should do more to prepare for its own staffing needs, according to a national taskforce that is the latest to forecast a big shortfall in skilled labour as a result of the mining boom.
The federal government’s National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce has concluded that growing demand will result in a shortfall of 36,000 tradespeople across Australia by 2015.
The predicted shortage will come as no surprise to the Australian Steel Institute, which has raised concerns that the lack of local content from big projects is drastically affecting its members in Western Australia, traditionally a source of qualified blue-collar workers (trades) for the resources industry.
An institute survey of six leading WA steel fabricators shows the trades employed has dropped by more than 50 per cent since 2008 and apprenticeships have fallen by 70 per cent.
The companies named by the institute are Pacific Industrial, Park Engineering, Fremantle Steel, AGC, United Group and JV Engineering. Collectively, their trades have dropped 825 to 408 in two years and apprenticeships from 138 to 42.
The NRSE taskforce, chaired by Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia Gary Gray, presented a wide ranging set of recommendations that took into account the planned major resources, energy and related infrastructure projects in Australia.
The taskforce found that the resources sector employs significantly fewer apprentices than would be expected given its share of trade employment.
It recommended that more flexible apprenticeship models be developed, and that companies be required to forecast future employment requirements and make proposals about where that labour will come from.
It also wants the industry to take more responsibility for employing apprentices.
The recommendations included upskilling existing workers through onsite and mobile training centres, and recognition of prior learning for construction workers with significant experience, but who did not hold trade qualifications.
Temporary migration strategies, including the 457 visa, were found to be an effective strategy for addressing any shortfalls, however the federal government needed to commit to a five-day turnaround time to finalise applications.
The taskforce also recommended a special form of labour agreement between industry and the government be introduced to streamline access to migration.
The Enterprise Migration Agreements, applied to ‘mega resource projects’, would pre-qualify employers and reduce negotiation timeframes which currently average between six and nine months.
“The right approach to the sector’s skill needs must be demand driven and include improving our schools, developing our apprenticeship system, strengthening our universities and creating a more efficient labour market,” the taskforce report stated.
While the local steel industry struggles to compete with the resources sector to retain the trades it trains, its biggest concern is the downturn in work across the sector as big projects source fabrication work directly from overseas.
ASI WA manager James England said the industry was losing out to low-cost foreign competitors, which sacrificed safety and quality.
“If they are cheap, they are cheap for the wrong reasons,” he said.
Mr England said it was notable that big projects that had a significant foreign ownership, often Chinese steel producers, appeared to be at the forefront of offshore fabrication.
The steel institute is proposing a series of state and federal measures to help the local industry including: accelerated depreciation for locally produced infrastructure; using state royalties to develop a centre of excellence; providing infrastructure and other offsets for projects that increase local content; and gaining a better understanding of the multiplier effect of buying local.
The steel institute claims that for every $1 million spent in Australia in the steel industry $317,000 is raised in tax revenue, more than $1.6 million is generated in other value-added services, and $211,000 is saved in welfare.
Mr England said that the steel fabricators were not looking for subsidies, just a fair go.
“We are trying to find solutions that don’t upset the hardline economists,” he said.
