Increased demand for skilled workers for NBL project

Australia, 3rd December: A severe shortage of skilled workers is already being felt by Australia and the rollout of National Broadband Network is likely going to increase the demand for more skilled immigrants in the nation.

The nation will need more engineers for construction of the NBN (National Broadband Network).
According to Graham Bradley, president of BCA (Business Council of Australia), there is an acute shortage of skilled workforce in the mining sector and the NBN project will only result in higher requirement for skilled Australian visa holders in the communications sector of the nation.

The problem of required number of skilled workforce like engineers will worsen in Queensland and WA (Western Australia), Bradley asserted.

And seeing a severe shortage of required skilled migrants in Australia, the competition is going to become tough leading to an increase of 30 percent in the salaries in the WA mining sector.

Mr. Bradley quipped that the nation is seeing a revival of the skills shortage experienced by the nation before the economic crisis nearly two years ago.

The BCA president stated that several members of the BCA had many unfilled skilled vacancies and the scenario is going to worsen as the states of Queensland and WA prepare for new upcoming projects.

BCA believes that the nation has not done required investments in the skills. And if the required skills are not imported by the nation, then it is likely to rob itself of several significant opportunities of growth, asserted Mr. Bradley.

Hence, the government must work towards relaxing the Australian visa norms for 457 Australian visas under which the Australian firms are allowed to sponsor foreign skilled migrants to immigrate to Australia for working here, Bradley stated.
 

Meanwhile, Chris Bowen, the Australian immigration minister maintained that there were various options under the Australian immigration norms for engineers to immigrate to Australia.

In addition, under the Australian permanent employer-sponsored migration scheme, employers in Australia had the facility for nomination of skilled engineers.

The minister added that the program of 457 Australian visas was solely demand-driven and there were no restrictions on the total number of engineers to be sponsored for immigrating to Australia. Hence, the employers in Australia had the liberty to hire foreign workers to fill various vacancies in case skilled domestic workforce was not available.