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Industry partnership to address critical mining skills shortage

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RESOURCE industry employer group AREEA has welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement of several Critical Skills Investment industry partnerships designed to ease critical skills shortages on resource projects.

The funding announcement comes just days after the Prime Minister formed the National Resources Advisory Council to discuss issues including the growing skills crisis in the industry and its’ impact on major projects across the country.

AREEA and the Resources Advisory Council have called for the National Resource Sector Employment Taskforce’s recommendations to be fast-tracked in an environment where the industry is quickly running out of skilled workers.

Through its new partnership with the government’s Critical Skills Investment Fund, AREEA and its members will deliver a number of vocational, nationally-recognised qualifications tailored to the resources sector and specific site needs.

The association is the resource industry’s peak employer group and utilises its Registered Training Organisation (RTO) division to assist in skills development across its widespread membership base.

AREEA Director Minna Knight, said the Federal Government-funded project will deliver critical leadership training to a numerous workers in key regional mining areas in partnership with employers identified as having significant skills shortages.

In one of three projects undertaken by AREEA with the Critical Skills Investment Fund , a consortium of five mining operators have banded together to access training resources that are difficult to secure on their own.

“The critical skills funding program requires co-contributions from the industry and provides support and training services to these members who, due to their size, may not have had the opportunity to implement this level of workforce development and training,” Ms Knight said.

“Skills development programs for smaller employers can often be more viable and effective when working as a group and AREEA has collaboratively brought these stakeholders together.

“In this case, training is mainly being delivered at supervisory level to develop leadership capability and enhanced productivity in the resource sector. It will strengthen the operational management and productivity of numerous smaller resource companies that contribute so valuably to our national economy.”

The five AREEA member companies to benefit from the program’s first wave of training are located across West Australia and South Australia and comprise Doral Mineral Sands; Doral Fused; Leighton Construction Training Centre; HWE Iron Ore; and Uranium One Australia.

Unlisted public company Doral Mineral Sands has mining and mineral processing operations in Western Australia. General manager Andrew Templeman said the industry partnership with AREEA has made securing government funding for critical training programs a realistic target for smaller miners.

“We welcome the efforts of AREEA RTO to assist us with advice and preparation of the documents that made this opportunity viable, to support our workforce development,” Mr Templeman said.

“The primary reason for such training is to address the shortfalls in our own leadership skills development and we look forward to working with this partnership.”

AREEA is also using the Critical Skills Investment Fund grant to deliver leadership and surface extraction qualifications for workers at Onslow Salt’s WA project and at Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mine’s site in central WA.

Across all its projects, AREEA RTO will conduct courses in Certificate IV Training and Assessment, Certificate IV Frontline Management, Certificate IV in OHS, Diploma in OHS and resources specific qualifications.

“All of our training operations fall in line with government strategies for regional workforce development and exercise the priorities put forward by the National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce,” Ms Knight said.

“We are also implementing strategies for key priority groups, such as increasing the number of women, indigenous and ageing workers engaged in the resources sector.

“AREEA is well positioned to provide RTO training services to create opportunities for our members to develop their workforces where those opportunities would not otherwise be easily accessible.”

ENDS

Download a copy of the AREEA Media Release here.

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