Preparing for a growing energy workforce

The National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce, chaired by the Hon. Gary Gray AO MP, Parliament Secretary for Western and Northern Australia, released its discussion paper in March and has been travelling across Australia holding a series of consultation forums. 

The taskforce can make a major contribution to Australia's ability to underpin the future skills and labour needs of the oil and gas sector.  Responses to the discussion paper offer the opportunity for Australia to take a significant step forward in understanding the nature and magnitude of the skills challenge and canvassing the full range of options for addressing the issue.

The shortage of labour and the need for an appropriately skilled workforce are regularly identiifed as key impediments to the growth of Australia's resources sector.  While this is undoubtedly true, to precisely what extent and what actions are required is much less certain.  This is where Resourcing the Future comes in.

The paper points out that 80 new resource projects are proposed to commence operations in Australia by 2015.  While it is unlikely that all of these will go ahead in the timeframe proposed, we should not under estimate the challenge that the continued growth of the resources sector presents for policy-makers and the industry itself in making sure that we have the right number of people with the right skills at the right time.

Given the number of variables that will affect the future growth of the industry, including Australia's investment competitiveness, the economic climate and international demand for Australian resources, it is impossible to forecast the industry's skill and labour needs into the future with a high degree of accuracy.  Planning for uncertainty must be a key plank of the strategy and underscores the importance of a strong partnership between the industry and government, which both have very significant, though different, roles to play.  While there will be a need for specific training programs, many of which are conducted by industry, a greater public emphasis on maths, science, engineering and literacy benefits the national as a whole, not just the resource sector.

A key word will be flexibility.  Flexibility in the structure of education and training programs could encourage higher participation rates of under-represented groups such as Indigenous people, women and older workers, and provide more suitable arrangements for apprenticeship completion as well as opportunities for retrenched workers.  Providing for flexibility where workers live and study will also open the door to oil and gas employment opportunities for people all over Australia and overseas.  The government has already taken positive steps in relation to skilled migration and the oil and gas industry will be keen to see further advances being made in this area.

Australia's oil and gas industry is working closely with the taskforce to provide essential industry advice and information on what needs to be done to plan for the future skills needs of Australia, and for the resources sector.

To read the government's discussion paper, click here: http://www.deewr.gov.au/Skills/Programs/National/nrset/Documents/NRSETReport.pdf

To read industry submissions addressing key questions and issues raised in the paper, click here: http://www.deewr.gov.au/Skills/Programs/National/nrset/Pages/Submissions.aspx