WHERE are all the people? Put simply, Western Australia doesn't have enough of them with the right skills and experience to make the most of the surge in oil and gas development.
WHERE are all the people?
Put simply, Western Australia doesn't have enough of them with the right skills and experience to make the most of the surge in oil and gas development.
According to research by the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA, even under its most pessimistic economic forecasts, WA will need to find an extra 10,000 workers by next year, rising to 37,000 in 2012, when LNG construction is likely to be at its peak.
Not surprisingly, then, the universal opinion expressed at WA Business News' recent roundtable was the urgent need for government and industry to work together to address that looming shortage.
Land Surveys managing director Peter Rullo, whose firm provides specialist surveying services to major resources companies including Woodside, said industry's appetite for people had barely scratched the surface despite the recent slowdown.
“My view is that the boom we've had over the last couple of years is really only a taste of what's to come," he said.
“At the moment we are getting people, but it is still hard, and I can see that in a year's time we'll be back in the position we were in a year ago. So we're going to be at our limit and I don't know where all these extra people are going to come."
In the short term, the consensus view was that government restrictions on the import of highly skilled professionals such as engineers must be eased, rather than tightened, because the necessary expertise simply wasn't currently available locally.
But in the medium to long term, more incentives for training, education and re-skilling were seen as vital.
Plexal Group managing director Steve Jones said while most initial high-level engineering for new LNG projects would happen overseas, the key was to prepare for the wave of follow-up opportunities created once projects were up and running.
“It's really in six years' time that I expect demand for designers and engineers based in Australia to be huge, because it's the ongoing modifications and enhancements to these new plants that we're going to need local resources for," he said.
“If we haven't been smart enough to respond ... so that those engineers are available in five or six years time, then we've missed a golden opportunity."
Mr Jones suggested increased government promotion of engineering and trades as "a sexy thing to be in" as an important first step. But a more meaningful step would be to introduce incentives, such as tax breaks, for small to medium companies to sponsor students at universities or take on more apprentices.
That suggestion was certainly welcomed by Southern Cross Electrical Engineering managing director Stephen Pearce, who said his firm had recognised the looming skills shortage two years ago, and had significantly increased the number of its apprentices.
“We recognised that you've got to invest in your people right now to take advantage in future," he said. "So we increased our apprenticeship numbers last intake, we'll increase them again this intake and will probably do a half-year intake for the first time as well."
Additionally, industry had to do more to upskill existing workers with experience in similar fields but who require additional training in the specific areas that will be in most demand.
Greater government support for research, education and training could also help Perth become a regional headquarters for oil and gas technology and expertise, capitalising on its natural attributes such as its location, lifestyle and geology.
Neptune Marine chief Christian Lange summed up the need for a co-ordinated long-term approach to meeting the skills challenge.
“Governments and CEOs are there to generate long-term value but get rewarded for short-term gain, which is a fundamental problem," he said
“We have a tremendous opportunity for developing a robust long-term economy, but business and government have to work together and listen to each other to really look at the long-term future."
