Australia’s historically low unemployment rate of 4.0 per cent highlights the importance of further investment in skills initiatives in the upcoming Budget.
The nation’s strong economic recovery from COVID-19 has driven substantial growth in employment.
Australian mining alone has added more than 20,000 people to its workforce in the past 12 months and supported 5000 new apprentices.
Programs such as the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements program have been successful in increasing apprenticeship numbers.
However, these programs need additional funding to continue.
The MCA is calling on the government to provide job seekers and employers with certainty and commit to permanently fund the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements program that will support small and medium sized businesses across the mining supply chain to employ new apprentices.
Further, the MCA calls on the government to expand the work of the National Careers Institute on new interactive career pathways maps to include mining and support the industry skills organisations to fast-track apprenticeships.
To meet acute skills shortages, the MCA urges the Australian government to reform skilled migration by simplifying skilled migration lists and reducing duplication.
Let’s keep the COVID-19 economic recovery going by increasing investment in skills to create more and better jobs for Australians.
