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Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme Opens WA Door to Skilled Foreign Workers
Australia July 20, 2011 – With more than A$225 billion of new resource and infrastructure projects in the pipeline, Western Australia is facing the prospect of a shortage of about 150,000 skilled workers in the resources and infrastructure sectors by 2017.
The Western Australia Chamber of Commerce and Industry has predicted that the state will be in need of an additional 300,000 skilled workers over the next 10 years in order to cope with the predicted labor shortages, with 155,000 of those jobs to be created over the next four years due to export-led growth.
In order to address the chronic shortage of workers in Western Australia, the Federal Government has just recently announced a scheme to recruit skilled overseas workers to work in Australia in order to address the chronic shortage of workers in the state.
Federal Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has announced plans to make it easier for WA companies to recruit overseas skilled workers.
At a mining conference in Perth recently, Immigration Minister Bowen told the delegates that Perth will be made eligible for the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme.
With Perth’s listing as a regional hardship area under the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme, Perth employers will now find it easier to recruit needed skilled migrant workers.
Perth employers, whether in the resources, construction, restaurant or other sectors, are now eligible to apply to take workers already in Australia under the sponsored 457 Australian skilled visa program or to import skilled workers from overseas.
As the labor shortages were particularly acute in Perth, Minister Bowen said that its listing as a regional hardship area will provide a chance for employers to take up some of the 16,000 skilled migrant places offered each year.
Furthermore, the scheme also provides opportunities for such workers to move to permanent residency.
The Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) allows Australian employers in regional and low population growth areas of Australia to sponsor overseas skilled workers under the Temporary Business (Long Stay) Australia skilled visa (subclass 457 visa) in order to satisfy genuine skill shortages in regional and low population growth areas of Australia.
source:
abc.net.au
