Western Australia’s Chamber of Minerals and Energy director Reg Howard-Smith told delegates the mining industry needed to look “out of the box”, particularly when it comes to attaining skilled migrant workers. This included approaching less traditional areas outside of New Zealand, England and South Africa.
“The mining industry rarely takes in skilled migrants, especially compared to the national average and other industries. An extraordinary statistic when we have such a skills shortage,” Howard-Smith said.
“We continue robbing off one another at the moment and not growing the pool.”
As far as immigration, the mining industry has made some moves recently to source overseas workers. Last year overseas skills expos, which partly encompassed mining, were held in Amsterdam, London, Berlin and Southern India.
This year Howard-Smith said there would be a more robust round of expos – starting in a few weeks in Kolkata (Calcutta).
“At the Calcutta expo there are only three resource companies going – it is smack bang in the middle of India’s resource sector and only Rio Tinto, Newcrest and a Queensland coal company are attending. This area is strong in coal, bauxite and iron ore.”
Some of the expos being held this year include Brisbane, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Manila.
On top of immigration, Howard-Smith said the skills shortage could also be addressed through better training and enhancing the industry’s image.
“The cyclical nature of the resources sector contributes significantly to the skills shortage. The perception at universities and TAFEs is we dispose of people when things get bad, and this perception lingers for years,” he said.
The less than glossy image of the industry has been partly reflected in enrolments. Last year all regional universities had some of their lowest enrolments on record in the resource-related courses.
“We do not employ young people (15-24), and we don’t market to young people, which is something we need to look at.”
He said the industry must also look at keeping older workers in the industry for longer. For every one young worker entering the market today, there are seven workers over the age of 45.
