Government and resource industry collaborate on mining jobs board

The Australian Government’s decision to work with the resource industry to help more Australians secure a job in mining has been welcomed by peak resource industry employer group AMMA.

AMMA’s Executive Director of Industry, Minna Knight, said government and industry had reached a collaborative solution to the requirement for job advertisements for major resource projects seeking an enterprise migration agreement (EMA) to be placed on a jobs board.

“Starting today, jobseekers that access the government jobs board http://www.jobsearch.gov.au/resourcesectorjobs will be linked directly to job vacancies posted by resource employers on the industry-run jobs website - AMMA miningoilandgasjobs.com,” Knight said.

“AMMA welcomes the government’s commitment to support the existing efforts of industry in connecting Australians directly with employment opportunities in resources.

“This is a step in the right direction for jobseekers, employers and the government to address the industry’s skills and labour crisis.”

AMMA worked with resource employers to activate AMMA miningoilandgasjobs.com - Australia’s first resource industry-operated online jobs and careers portal - in late 2011 in response to growing labour demands that threaten the country’s $500 billion pipeline of projects.

“AMMA miningoilandgasjobs.com is an industry site with direct employer job advertising. No third-party job advertising is accepted, so jobseekers can be assured all vacancies are advertised by resource employers, reducing the opportunity for job scams and other misleading material,” Knight said.

“The website currently has more than 1900 vacancies and regularly hosts jobs expos. The most recent expo in Perth attracted more than 14,000 jobseekers.”

Leading economists predict up to 750,000 new jobs will be created on the back of Australia’s mining boom in the coming decades and resource industry employers across the country are posting their job vacancies on the website.

Knight said AMMA miningoilandgasjobs.com is Australia’s biggest source of information about employment in resources with the inclusion of a comprehensive Careers and Industry Guide.

“The Careers and Industry Guide has been designed specifically to prepare job candidates for a career in the resource industry by providing 700-plus pages of information on the technical details of each sector, locations, conditions and training,” she said.

“The quality of the information and ease of use has created a positive response from Australian workers and the site continues to grow in momentum among both jobseekers and employers.”

AMMA developed the site in the wake of the National Resource Sector Employment Taskforce (NRSET) report and undertook extensive consultation with its key members, the federal government and industry stakeholders in the process.

The NRSET report highlights current activity will create about 62,000 new mining jobs by 2015, also stating employers in the resource industry need to be innovative in their approach to sourcing and retaining employees.

“The NRSET research was conducted in the first half of 2010 and since then we’ve seen further multibillion-dollar project approvals, record resources exports and heightened mining activity across the board. This demonstrates the figure of 63,000 is merely a starting point for industry estimates,” Knight said.

“While the industry supports the NRSET recommendations, we encourage the government to fast-track as many of the recommendations as possible so we can upskill, train and better prepare Australians for many of the roles which will be created in the coming years.”