From the Secretariat (Issue 75)
Education in the Extractive Industry
DR ELIZABETH GIBSON, provides an insight into the importance of education in the Extractive Industry.
All operators are aware of the importance of education and training of their workforce that is focused on improved productivity and compliance for the extractives industry. The future strategic directions for extractive industry training in Victoria with the intent to facilitate the strengthening and positioning of the training is of the upmost importance. However, there are many challenges facing the education provider and for the extractive industry.
There are external factors that influence the delivery and uptake of the training such as the cut in the National Workforce Development Fund by the Federal Government. There was the budget announcement made by the Abbott Government which will deliver a new $476 million Industry Skills Fund, however, this has not yet been implemented. The State Government is favouring the Certificate III over the Certificate II through offering more funding for the Certificate III and above. Additionally, there is the review by Skills DMC into RII training Package assessment requirement. The outcome of this review may set the standards so high for the registered training organisation (RTO) that they may move out of training for the sector. The CMPA will make a submission that balances the needs of the industry for quality training against the viability of the providers.
The format of the training needs to be developed from real job profiles as discussed at the CMPA Education Workshop in 2013, for example, operate Haul truck run by William Adams. The Extractive Sector Standing Committee (Skills DMC) is currently considering this issue also.
Attention should also be given to the employee being on a training program that is a career path.
There are a number of internal factors that influence the delivery and uptake of training such as there is concern that the standard of training is set too low because of the cost of delivery to the RTO. There is a challenge in securing suitably qualified people to teach with real industry experience. The timing and location of the courses is not always convenient to the industry and so there is a need to deliver some of the training electronically. There are opportunities to expand training into areas such as construction material recycling, mobile crushing plants, concrete plants and asphalt plants. There are issues that once the employees have been trained they leave which has led, in some cases, to companies providing in house training.
There are a number of actions that can be taken by RTO’s that will maintain a vibrant extractive industry training industry in Victoria such as:
- developing a strategic plan for the extractive industry training
- determining the number of course enrollments versus the number of course completions
- seeking feedback from employers concerning training
- developing training flow diagrams
- investigating extractive industry training needs in Victoria
- working with CMPA to develop their trainers
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