Speaking at the recent International Public Works Conference in Canberra, Paul Humphreys, Manager Workforce Planning and Development at Skills DMC, said that with the Minerals Councils of Australia predicting the need for an additional 86,000 people, the public sector will continue to face major difficulties competing against the higher wages that resource companies can offer.
"The old barrier of geographical isolation has largely been overcome through work arrangements such as weeks on/weeks off, fly in fly out," he said. "People can now live anywhere in Australia and work for a mining company. Additionally, the mining sector has a preference to source staff who are already skilled, so civil engineering and civil works are definitely on their radar."
Skills DMC is one of 12 industry skills councils set up under the Federal Government’s Skills Australia. Skills DMC covers four sectors – drilling, mining, quarrying and civil infrastructure (including engineers and technical officers employed by Local Government).
It is working closely with the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia (IPWEA) on the skills shortage issue.
Paul Humphreys said it is vital that all organisations take a strategic and systematic approach to develop and manage staff in line with their business imperatives.
Skills DMC has created a free web based training needs analysis tool for resources and infrastructure organisations to assist with this. Funded through the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, this online tool is called Skills Maximiser TM.
"The Skills Maximiser provides a forecast of the people your Council will required based on your capital works program, your current workers, their ages and your budget," Paul Humphreys said. "It will assess how many extra people you will need, as well as assist your planning for retirements over the timeframe. If staff turnover is high in particular areas of your operations, it will pinpoint these enabling you to investigate and work to address why this is occurring."
He said that is also provides occupational profiling, tracking what training you staff have already completed and what skills they will need in the future.
Visit www.skillsdmc.gov.au for further information.
