The City of Ballarat together with local city leaders have identified skilled migration as an opportunity to address the city’s workforce shortages.
In conjunction with HOST International, and its subsidiary organisation Regional Opportunities Australia (ROA), the City of Ballarat and local city leaders from Committee for Ballarat, GROW Central Highlands and Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council will work together to pilot an industry mentoring program that seeks to help address the gap between skill shortages in the City of Ballarat and skilled migrants who are interested in moving to Ballarat for employment opportunities.
Candidates and local businesses will be matched to support each other’s needs, in the form of a business mentoring program.
The mentoring period will be 6 weeks long, which will allow the business and the mentee time to meet, build relationships, share information, network and assist in career development.
It will also allow for the mentee to see what life in Ballarat is like and understand the profession in the city and discuss employment opportunities, with the business or in the industry in Ballarat.
The program will offer support for the mentees and their families to move to Ballarat should they obtain permanent employment after the mentoring period.
Within Ballarat, 15 businesses have expressed interest in becoming mentors, with matches currently being made with 15 – 20 mentee migrants currently living in capital cities such as Sydney and Melbourne
City of Ballarat Mayor, Cr Daniel Moloney said we are acutely aware of the workforce shortages affecting the city’s business, community and economy.
“There is a lot of great work being done at a national level, but the work we can do on the ground here in our home city can be so beneficial to our community,” he said.
“If we can work together to address the gap between skills shortages in Ballarat and qualified migrants who are looking for a community to join, the impact on the city would be incredible.”
The mentoring process has commenced on 24 October 2022 and will be monitored throughout the 6 weeks.
