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November 16, 2011 – Good news for those who are planning to apply for Australia skilled visa. Now is the time to apply for an Australian skilled visa!

As Australia struggles to fill up the needed workforce required to complete the current $236 billion worth of resource projects which are under way across Australia and the further $191 billion awaiting the final stages of approval, Australia’s mining and resource industry are now in immediate need of skilled workers.

A call for a flexible skilled migration program was again reiterated recently by Western Australian Chamber of Minerals and Energy (CME) CEO, Reg Howard-Smith.

In response to Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s comments over the weekend that the resources are not doing enough to employ local communities, Mr. Howard-Smith stated that Australia is facing skills shortage and not labor shortage.

This response was triggered by Gillard’s comments at a CEO Summit session at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group in Honolulu. She said that there is a need in the Australian workforce to develop the skills needed internally in order to meet the demands of the future and this responsibility falls on the Australian companies where they are needed to contribute to training rather than complain about labor shortages and the need for more people immigrating on working visa Australia.

However, Mr. Howard-Smith explained that there is an immediate need for skilled workers, and training these young people is a medium- to long-term solution which is not what the industry needs now. Without immediate intervention, some of these billion worth of resource projects will simply run out of workers and would not come to fruition if the pressing skills shortage is not immediately addressed.

Moreover, according to Mr. Howard-Smith, Western Australia resources sector will require an additional 33 000 workers over the next few years, with the majority of positions being skilled trades people, engineers and metallurgists as predicted by CME’s latest state growth outlook.

In addition, Howard-Smith stated that people in areas of higher unemployment in Perth do not necessarily have the skills the resource sector required. He further acknowledged that “Equipping long-term unemployed with the right skills is an important role for government, and industry would welcome innovative policy responses in tackling the issue.”

However, Mr. Howard-Smith further commented that there was no single solution to the skills shortages across Australia. Rather, the “Fly-in Fly-out, along with investing in skills and training, increasing workforce diversity – with more women and indigenous employees – and a flexible skilled migration program, will all play their role in meeting the skills shortage challenge.”

Meanwhile, Western Australia State Training and Workforce Minister, Peter Collier, has called on the Federal Government to fast-track Australian working visa requirements for skilled migrants, and to boost the state’s intake of migrants.

This is good news for people looking for work in Australia or for those applying for Australia working visa as the State Government is expecting an estimated 117,000 worker shortfall by 2015. This number will be increasing to more than 170,000 by 2017.

source:
australiamagazine.co.uk