With an annual production value of more than $12 billion dollars, the NSW minerals industry employs more than 21,000 men and women with trade and degree skills in a wide range of areas including geology, mining, metallurgy, mineral processing, site construction and rehabilitation, mining engineering, environmental science and occupational health and safety. Thousands more are employed in dependent industries like steel and cement production, electricity generation, heavy engineering and equipment manufacture, the provision of mine supplies and consumable items, and advisory, design and management services.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has shown that men and women in non-managerial roles in the minerals industry earn more than their counterparts in any other industry in Australia. Opportunities are widespread across rural, regional and coastal locations.
Career opportunities are plentiful. Job vacanicies more than doubled between 2002 and 2004, even though the number of tradespersons in the industry grew by 54 per cent. Demand is especially strong for intermediate mining and construction workers, intermediate stationery plant operators, fabrication engineering tradespersons and mechanical engineering tradepersons (see Prospecting for Skills: Current and Future Skills Needs for the Minerals Sector May 2005).
The Prospecting for Skills report was produced by the National Council for Vocational Education and Research (NCVER) in association with the Minerals Council of Australia and the Chamber of Minerals and Energy (WA). It identified how companies can attract people to the industry, particularly in light of its traditional masculine image and the impending retirement of many older skilled people (according to the 2005 Report of the Resources and Infrastructure Industry Skills Council (RIISC) 50 per cent of the coal industry workforce was aged 45-55 in December 2002).
Solutions to these challenges include creating more career opportunities for young people through pathway programs with schools and training providers; and encouraging women and other groups (indigineous people, people with transferable skills from outside the industry and skilled migrants) to join the minerals industry through specially tailored strategies. Detailed information will be presented in an Industry Outlook due late 2005.
Information on career opportunities in the industry is available from the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), which also provides information on industry experience for undergraduates. The Council is also the sponsor of a Women and Mining Steering Committee to increase the effective participation and contribution of women in, and their engagement with, the industry and its communities. This will involve an initial program of research to identify the key demographic issues around women’s education, employment and geographic distribution.