Minerals and Agriculture Team Up to Beat "Chronic Skills Shortages"

The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has teamed up with the National Farmers Federation (NFF) and the Australian Government to address what it says are chronic skills shortages.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the MCA, NFF and the Australian Government was signed today to pool together education, employment and training opportunities.

The MCA says it has identified that at least 70,000 more workers will be needed over the next decade - an increase of 75% on current employment levels.

Three pilot sites have been identified for co-location of agriculture and minerals industry enterprise including an Australian Technical College (ATC).

The three initial pilot sites will be Townsville in Queensland; Port Augusta in South Australia and Dubbo in NSW.

"This is another critical initiative in our suite of activities to address the chronic skills and labour shortages that are significantly restricting the ability of the industry and the communities in which we operate to fully benefit from the strongest global market growth in a generation," MCA CEO Mitchell H Hooke says.

By staff writer