Job summit opportunies from adversity

The peak representative body for Queensland’s minerals and energy sector has urged a refocusing of the state’s skills training agenda to help reduce the impact of job losses and lay the foundations for the workforce of the future.

On the eve of the Premier’s North Queensland Jobs Summit in Townsville, the Chief Executive of the Queensland Resources Council, Michael Roche said the creation of an expert skills body to advise the government on future workforce requirements would position the Queensland economy to rebound strongly from the global downturn.

‘We think it’s time that Queensland moved beyond simply relying on the vocational education and training system to deliver the skilled workforce necessary to achieve the ambitious infrastructure and development agendas being planned by the state government and the private sector,’ Mr Roche said.

‘By taking a strategic and industry-focused approach to skilling, we can build a workforce that meets the future needs of a dynamic and growing state.

‘We would see this Queensland skills advisory body complementing the federal government’s Skills Australia framework to maintain a consistent focus on enhanced productivity.

‘What we do now in shaping the future of education and training will play a large part in determining how strongly we emerge from the global economic downturn.

‘The QRC will be putting a range of other proposals to the government over coming days to better align the state and federal employment and training programs and institutions to the here and now needs of displaced workers’.

Mr Roche said he will also be cautioning the Jobs Summit in Townsville against too much of a downbeat assessment of the position of and outlook for the resources sector in Queensland.

'Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data show that in November 2008 there were nearly 46,000 people employed in mining in Queensland,' he said.

'Four years earlier in November 2004, there were just 25,000 people employed in mining in Queensland. It's important to put the estimated 3000 job losses in mining and mineral processing since November in that historical context.'

Mr Roche said that no one could take any satisfaction from the job losses to date but the resources sector was well positioned to maintain most of the gains of the past four years.

'There is an opportunity now to position the reources sector for the next upturn with a strong focus on new skilling strategies, as well as on streamlining project approval red tape and investing in the infrastructure that will provide the export capacity that we will need for the inevitable upturn.

‘Adversity can be turned into opportunity, and that’s the signal all Queenslanders are hoping to see flagged by the North Queensland Jobs Summit and in subsequent government announcements,’ Mr Roche said.

Media contact: Jim Devine (0412) 190 021