The Western Australian Government’s decision to create a Department of Training and Workforce Development will be a positive move for the petroleum production and processing industry, according to a report from the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA).
APPEA has welcomed the decision to create a Department of Training and Workforce Development, claiming the move represents a stronger focus on training to meet the much-needed skilled workforce requirements of the upstream oil and gas sector.
“We are delighted to see government give this the priority it deserves,” said APPEA WA director, Tom Baddeley.
“Our industry needs highly skilled workers and with a number of large gas projects on the drawing boards that will create even greater demand, it is important that we can work together with government to meet these skill needs.
“We are strongly focussed on building capability and retaining a skilled workforce to drive growth in our industry.”
Baddeley said that in anticipation of the next skills wave, the industry is working on number of new strategies.
“For example, many of our projects are located in regional Western Australia so the oil and gas industry is working in those areas to improve the employment participation of local people and Aboriginal Australians to meet the industry’s long term skills needs and to build sustainable communities,” he said.
The oil and gas industry has extensive training and development programs for existing employees and a number of initiatives in place aimed at improving the skill levels of new employees through traineeships and apprenticeships, says APPEA.
This includes programs conducted at the Australian Centre for Energy and Process Training (ACEPT) at Munster, and through training providers such as the Energy Apprenticeships Group.
In Western Australia, the oil and gas industry also welcomed the Government’s creation earlier this year of the new Resources Industry Training Council. The new Council is focused on the strategic skill needs of the upstream and downstream oil and gas industry and also the mining industry, APPEA says.