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The State Government has released a strategy that outlines an integrated and targeted approach to address a future skills shortage by supplementing Western Australia’s skilled workforce.

Training and Workforce Development Minister Peter Collier said the Western Australian Skilled Migration Strategy included a range of initiatives designed to augment the State’s workforce with the skills that could not be met by the local labour force.

“The State Government’s top priority is to prepare West Australians for the workforce, by providing training opportunities and other strategies to help them fill high-skilled vacancies,” Mr Collier said.

“However, we know this will not be enough and that targeted migration will be essential to boost our skilled labour needs.

“We need to explore all options for not just increasing the participation of our local population, but also adding to the labour pool by attracting skilled workers from overseas and other parts of Australia.

“Developing a workforce that meets the skill and labour demands of industry will help ensure that future investment in WA provides long-term benefits for all West Australians.”

The Skilled Migration Strategy has been developed in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce (WA) and Chamber of Minerals and Energy, with extensive consultation with other industry, government and community stakeholders.

It focuses on the six key themes of:

• delivering a more consistent and integrated planning approach to skilled migration
• providing easily accessible, high-quality information on skilled migration
• developing attraction and retention strategies to ensure WA has the skilled workforce needed to support sustainable economic growth
• refining migration processes to support a more flexible and responsive migration program
• implementing a range of settlement services to support skilled migrants to integrate into the local workforce
• maintaining an ongoing dialogue with the Federal Government to positively influence policy direction and ensure the migration needs of WA are met.

“This strategy builds on the Memorandum of Understanding on State Sponsored Skilled Migration I signed last year with the Federal Government. It allows for the State to sponsor 6,000 skilled migrants this year for high demand occupations,” the Minister said.

“In addition, I met recently with the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship to discuss the national migration program and how it can best serve the needs of WA employers.”

Mr Collier said the State’s economy was on the cusp of another period of sustained growth, driven by an estimated $225billion worth of resource and infrastructure projects that were either under construction, committed or under consideration.

Almost 240,000 new jobs are expected to be created in WA by 2017. With natural population growth and current migration levels, it is forecast that this will still leave a shortfall of about 150,000 workers required in WA in the next six years.

“This growth will present significant challenges for government, industry and the community as the demand for skilled labour to service the State’s growing industries places pressure on many sectors of the economy,” the Minister said.

The State Government has taken a co-ordinated response towards meeting the forecast increase in demand for skilled labour, announcing several strategies that include:

• releasing ‘Skilling WA - A workforce development plan for Western Australia’, a whole-of-government blueprint that provides a strategic framework to develop a skilled workforce for the future
• releasing the ‘Training together-working together’ strategy to improve training and employment outcomes for Aboriginal people
• committing to invest nearly $25million for almost 8,000 additional training places in 2011 to help West Australians develop their skills. This builds on the 7,600 new training places funded in the 2010-11 State Budget
• working with employers to pilot models for a more flexible and responsive apprenticeship and traineeship system
• establishing a series of Workforce Development Centres across the State, including those targeting employers and Aboriginal workers
• releasing ‘Training WA: Planning for the future 2009-2018’, which outlines targeted strategies to transform the State’s training system for the next decade.

Media statement from Department of Premier of Western Australia & Cabinet Ministers (www.premier.wa.gov.au)