Extra funds to tackle skills shortages in SA
30/06/2008(4:46 PM)
An extra $9 million has been pledged by the South Australian (SA) state government to help tackle skills shortages in the region.
According to the Advertiser, the funds, which raise the amount given to the nine Industry Skills Boards by 42 per cent, will be delivered over the next five years.
John Spoehr, executive director of the Australian Institute for Social Research, told the publication statistics released in 2005 show that SA will need an extra 13,500 workers in the next five years.
However, this figure does not take into workers needed for the mining and defence boom while some experts have predicted that an extra 300,000 skilled workers will be needed during the next 20 years, the news provider said.
"We need to be gearing up industry now to retain its existing mature-aged workforce and tap into a pool of people who are under-employed and unemployed," Mr Spoehr remarked.
In May it was announced by the government that Western Australia would pilot a training initiative to help solve sector skills shortages in the area.
The state will be the first region to join the Productivity Places Program, which will see 1,000 new training places delivered between July and December this year.
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