Western Roads Federation – The Skills Shortage and what’s being done

Over to you WESTERN ROADS FEDERATION by Cam Dumesny, CEO

The Skills Shortage and what's being done

The last few years we have all been struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic but as 2021 wore on, I realised there was another, much more serious pandemic that we are dealing with right across the world.

The Situation

1. The Western Australian Transport and Logistics industry continues to suffer a severe shortage of skilled staff from drivers, mechanics to operations personnel. 2. These shortages are directly contributing to economic impacts/ losses which are being reported daily in the media across multiple WA business sectors. 3. WA is beginning to approach the levels of COVID-19 case numbers that severely disrupted the supply chains on the East Coast.

HV Driver Training Program

With record levels of low unemployment, we will have increasing difficulty attracting people to train in the extraordinarily successful HV Driver Training Course. Noting that we now have 87% of all graduate students in jobs and employers demanding more.

Actions Item Update Working with Employment Facilitators:

We are developing a great relationship with Federal funded local employment facilitators to help identify and attract people into our

industry via the training program. Regional Expansion: Is being rolled out to Albany, Kalgoorlie and Bunbury but requires significant industry investment and effort to replicate Perth employment results.

Western Roads Federation is attending Jobs Fairs around the state to promote our industry to people considering their career options.

There’s potential for more regional training programs.

However, it will require support from our members to ensure that regional courses have the same degree of industry engagement and participation to ensure that we have in Perth. Family Friendly Training Course: It has been realised that we can attract more students from different target groups if the training course was res-structured to be on weekends or after hours. Three significant potential groups have been engaged: • Migrants and Refugees • Principal Careers • Indigenous

Fast Track Competency Based

Course: Building on the needs identified above for family friendly and the need to accelerate building a labour force to cope with COVID-19 related staff shortages, it is proposed to conduct a Fastrack course. • Competency assessment up front: E Pass- put into fast track program E Fail - put through whole program • Create a Fast Track Course E Restructure the course to accommodate full time workers E 8 units are essential - 4 Saturdays E VOC of the drivers • Action Required is to define the course, its delivery model and cost.

Migrant and Disadvantaged Group

Training: We are partnering with a major humanitarian agency to provide funding to cover the additional costs that migrants and disadvantaged groups incur when doing the HV Driver Operations course.

This is planned to be piloted in WA and rolled out nationally. International Drivers: It has been an agreed position that international drivers should be trained in the HV compliance laws, local road culture and be subject to a verification of competency before being engaged by industry.

With the expected flood of international drivers coming to meet demand, a modified course will be required, and a funding model provided.

The current TAFE based cost model is not acceptable, we need an acceptable industry solution. Member Led Training: A number of members have or are developing in-house driver training programs. There must be a subsidy provided direct to members for this, which we continue to actively push with the Federal Government. Professional Development: It has been recognised that there is a need to have professional development training for industry, government and related stakeholder executives. To that end, Western Roads Federation are finalising the development of an Executive Development program with Curtin University.

WESTERN ROADS FEDERATION IS THE UNITED VOICE OF WA TRANSPORT COMPANIES

Western Roads Federation has been formed to give a strong unified voice for companies who use WA roads for commercial benefit. Western Roads Federation is a membership driven organisation. If you believe in the industry and what you do, then make sure your company is a member, and get involved. For a membership application form Email cam.dumesny@westernroads.com.au ◆ Phone 08 9365 7799 or 0481 064 371 180 Hay St, East Perth WA 6004