Skills, education and training
Skills, education and training policy
Government and industry have moved to identify and address critical skills and labour issues in the resources sector.
In 2009-10, APPEA and its members focused on:
- Improving understanding of the upstream industry’s skills and labour needs
- Identifying strategies to improve skills and labour supply through workforce planning and development
- Promoting career opportunities in the oil and gas sector
- Maximising returns from government education and training policies
“An appropriately skilled workforce is available to support the growth of the oil and gas sector in Australia through strategic workforce planning, key skill pool development and by remaining focused on key pathways to employment such as cadetships, apprenticeships, traineeships and graduate programs.”
Continuing skills shortages
The oil and gas industry is facing unprecedented growth in liquefied natural gas and coal seam gas projects across Australia, but is competing for labour with many mining and infrastructure projects that are also planned for construction over the next five years.
A skills capability gap exists at a highly technical and senior level. There will also be a growing demand for technical personnel in oil and gas plant process operations and maintenance, and supervisors with appropriate levels of technical and safety experience and front-line management skills.
In the operational phase of projects, the industry continues to face skills gaps and shortages in professional disciplines such as geosciences and various forms of engineering, as well as increasing competition for electrical and process technicians.
APPEA argues that Australia must look to a range of solutions to build a sustainable workforce with a depth of skills that allows for adaptability and movement between industry sectors and supported as needed by skilled migration.
APPEA welcomes new Australian Government programs such as included the $200 million Critical Skills Fund, the Adult Apprenticeship Project and the Gladstone Workforce Skilling Strategy.
These programs provide a strategic approach to addressing the resources sector’s immediate and long-term skills needs. It makes sense for industry and government to co-operate in training the people needed to make major resources projects viable. APPEA looks forward to working with the Australian Government to build a stronger and more productive resources sector.
Skills, Education and Training (SET) Committee
The SET Committee reports to the APPEA Board on the implementation of the industry’s skills, education and training strategy. The committee meets four times per year and is made up of a range of industry professionals with backgrounds in training and skills development, human resource management, indigenous affairs and other areas.
For more information on the SET Committee and Strategy, please contact Miranda Taylor, Director - Skills & Safety.
APPEA's skills partnerships
Resources Industry Training Council for WA
Since 2009, APPEA has been working with the WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy – through the Resources Industry Training Council joint venture – to give the state government strategic advice on workforce planning. This has included identifying:
- the top 10 critical skill shortages affecting the resources sector.
- barriers to training in addressing those skill shortages
- barriers to diversity within those identified positions
- proposed strategies to increase numbers of qualified personnel.
Petroleum engineering education – a national approach
APPEA and the Australian universities offering petroleum engineering degrees have discussed possible mechanisms to:
- attract and retain high-quality lecturing staff
- achieve sustainable numbers of students
- provide local capacity to deliver degrees across Australia while delivering the benefits of a national approach.
Policy
