The Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association (AREEA) has welcomed the 2024 Jobs and Skills Report and called for a coordinated, targeted response to problems in the training pipeline.
The report, released annually by Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA), provides a detailed look at Australia’s workforce landscape, focusing on future skills, opportunities and challenges.
AREEA said that while university education remains integral to the next generation of resources and energy industry professionals, vocational education and training will become more important in meeting the industry’s increasingly varied and high-tech demands.
AREEA’s recent Resources and Energy Workforce Forecast: 2024-2029 highlighted the 107 major resources and energy projects in Australia’s investment pipeline – either already committed or considered advanced – expected to enter production between the second half of 2024 and the end of 2029.
These projects are worth about $131 billion and are forecast to drive demand for around 26,810 new production-related jobs.
AREEA Deputy CEO, Tara Diamond, said that while this growth is wonderful, the resources and energy industry continues to grapple with longstanding skills shortages.
“Engineering and geology roles are two of the highest skills in demand, but we know that geoscience graduates are in major decline, and reports have projected an engineering skills crisis by 2040.
“The government’s jobs plan must zero in on well-known problems in the training pipeline by improving VET and other training outcomes, labour mobility and access to skilled migration,” Ms Diamond said.
“It means a well-funded, coordinated and navigable education system where the universities and the VET sector are talking to each other and producing courses and learning outcomes aligned to what industry needs.
“And strong additional investment in TAFE and apprenticeships – especially advanced skill apprenticeships – tying in these better links between secondary school, vocational education providers and universities.
“As a sector, we also must appeal to the next generation’s curiosity and forward-thinking by accentuating rapidly evolving automation, robotics and high-tech skills and roles.”
