Trying to find an Australian at the Coal Face

Other conversations during the week included the voluntary (!)   redundancies at QR National, school based apprenticeships and TAFE courses that   can’t be delivered as trainers aren’t available.  Hard to believe Central Queensland is in a   boom and thousands of jobs need to be filled.    Extra rail corridors will be criss-crossing CQ and I image more trains   will be needed to transport the greater quantities of coal, but QR National need   less workers in CQ!  TAFE Rockhampton   offers a Certificate II in Electrotechnology, a bit of a leg up to an electrical   apprenticeship, but can’t deliver it as they can’t get trainers.  A school based apprenticeship can involve 4   weeks during the year where students attend TAFE. I said, “this would be during   school holidays”.  “Not necessarily” was   the answer.  That’s a bit of catching up   a student has to do.  While also missing   up to 2 days a week for an apprenticeship that has no guarantee of being   completed after the student finishes grade 12.    Then do you have a better chance of getting a job in the Galilee Basin   from Sunshine Coast than Rockhampton because it’s been in FIFO slumber   land?  It appears Government responses to   the job shortages is foreign workers.    Maybe if they scratch the surface a bit they may find a few things that   aren’t enhancing the chances of Australians filling Australian jobs.  The government grant the mining companies the   right to dig up our nations resources and send it overseas without having to   make significant contributions to the infrastructure, with now even less green   tape and apparently little real requirement to train and employ   Australians.  Why aren’t the pollies   asking and even better looking and listening for the reasons why 1 in 6 eligible   Australians are either under or unemployed (Roy Morgan Research)?  Get out of the office and visit the coal face.   Getting more Australians gainfully employed is going to go along way to   decreasing the debt, than just collecting royalty cheques.