Various Skilled Trades in Demand in WA

In a campaign to poach workers from other states to beat skills shortages, the West Australian government yesterday released a 20 page list of 348 priority occupations, including everything from carpenters, plumbers, architects, pilots, accountants, nurses, chefs and more.

As the WA unemployment rate fell to just 4 per cent, skills shortages are well beyond the mining sector, when in 2006 and 2007 the former Carpenter government pumped more than a $1 million into advertising and recruitment to attract out-of-state workers into the WA resource sector.

On the priority jobs list is construction, automotive and engineering trades, but the shortage of skilled workers in WA are so widespread that people from a vast range of backgrounds are in demand.

Vets, midwives, optometrists, social workers, lift mechanics, butchers, bakers and prison officers were among those named.

The average age of workers in the residential construction industry was 45 to 50 years and serious and radical changes were needed to encourage more young people to enter trades.

Shorter, more specialised apprenticeships would allow them to tailor their training to a specific job rather than learning things they would not use.