The Australian Government’s $2 billion JobTrainer skills package will help the nation’s minerals employers to boost the rate of economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government’s investment in 100,000 extra apprentices and $500 million to train or reskill 340,000 school leavers and unemployed people will help bring more highly skilled workers onto Australian mine sites and into the minerals supply chain.
The JobTrainer package will complement existing initiatives such as the MCA-led Mining Skills Organisation Pilot, an industry-led initiative which is building a responsive and flexible vocational education and training to deliver the skills and training needs of both the industry and the future minerals workforce.
The Pilot will identify opportunities to retrain and reskill entrants in regional and remote Australia and from other industries affected by COVID-19, including new and innovative skill sets and qualifications linked to technology adoption in the modern mining sector.
The Australian mining industry is a long-standing global leader in the development and deployment of new technology and techniques, including data analytics, automation, robotics and artificial intelligence, leadership which will contine in the post-pandemic era.
The sector’s success including $200 billion in exports is based on the dedication, commitment and skills of its operational workforce of 240,000, or about 2 per cent of Australia’s total workforce.
Two-thirds of these jobs are located in regional and remote Australia and form part of the wider 1.1 million jobs (or one in 10 Australian jobs) supported by mining and the mining equipment, technology and services sector.
