People, Safety and Health
Skills challenges reach boiling point
Brad Thompson, Senior Communications Advisor, AMMA
H
aving a clear ‘full picture’ understanding of the everevolving skills landscape continues to be a critical challenge for Queensland’s mining employers, says the Australian Resources and Energy Group, AMMA. The disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic has only amplified workforce and skills challenges for Australia’s resources sector – challenges the industry must overcome to successfully take advantage of future growth opportunities. Forecasts suggest significant growth is at the industry’s fingertips. Earlier this year, the Department of Industry described the resources and energy sector as being on the verge of a “new growth cycle”, with $334 billion worth of new major projects in its investment pipeline. At a national workforce level, AMMA’s forecasting reports identified 98 projects that are advanced in planning stages and could create over 100,000 jobs between now and 2026. “This is why now, more than ever, the industry must be on the front foot to work through the complex challenges of skills shortages, both present and into the future,” AMMA Chief Executive, Steve Knott AM, said. “Assessing and understanding the complexities of future workforce
demand is not only critical for employer and industry level workforce planning, but also in assisting government in directing skills and labour mobility initiatives.” As the peak employer group for the resources and energy industry, AMMA has recognised the value that comprehensive skills reports can provide to employers. In October the Group produced a new skills report, Resources and Energy Workforce, State of Play, collating insights, data and projections on key occupations for the mining, oil and gas and allied service industries. It highlighted the level of disruption the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted on long-established interstate FIFO practices, including significant migration of select occupations, including LNG operators and electronics trade workers, from the Eastern states into Western Australia over the past 12 months. The report shows many occupations are presently in critical undersupply and are forecast to have continued strong demand to 2025. This includes Mining,
Petroleum and Civil Engineers; Building and Engineering Technicians; Structural Steel and Welding Trades; Chefs; and Human Resources Professionals. “This report is a critical tool for one of Australia’s largest and most dynamic industries to understand the scale and complexities of labour market supply and shortages,” Mr Knott explained. “Over the past two years, AMMA members in every subsector and resource region of Australia have reported that challenges in sourcing skilled labour is their greatest ongoing workforce-related issue. “While resources investment and commodities demand are not at the level of the historic resources boom of 2002 to 2012, anecdotally members are telling us that skills shortages are today more acute than they have ever been.” A number of complex, overlapping factors are to blame. Some skilled occupations, for instance mining engineering, have seen a long and sustained decline in university intakes and graduate levels.
BBMC Yearbook 2021
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