With the current workforce in Victoria steadily growing older and retiring, employers face a skills crisis, writes Nick Costabile. The Victorian oil and gas industry is in a steady growth mode at present, with a number of projects due to commence early next year, such as the Patricia-Baleen gas project, Bass Gas (Yolla and White Ibis), Tasmanian Natural Gas (Duke Energy pipeline), and the Lochsport (Esso) pipelines. The Northern Territory’s Sunrise project has also drawn from the Victorian labour pool. While this is great news for the region, the industry is facing a major skills shortage, as the current workforce is taking years of experience and knowledge with them as they retire.

Currently - particularly in Bass Strait – the workforce is made up largely of older workers, and many companies have lost their focus on employing younger candidates. The current workforce has enormous amounts of knowledge and expertise. However, as more and more workers begin to retire, skills and information is lost to the employers that have neglected to train and recruit younger replacements.

Employers cannot afford to let this continue if they are to remain strong in the industry. Recruitment agencies are urging employers to invest in attracting a younger workforce, or face a major skills crisis as the industry continues to grow.

There are a number of reasons why a shortage of young talent is beginning to occur in the region, and to some extent around the rest of the country. Recently, the privatisation and restructuring of key training providers has taken place.

This has affected providers such as those in the utilities sector, and in some instances the water bodies - which typically cater to a large number of engineers, trainees and apprentices - can no longer take on due to privatisation and cost-cutting measures.

In addition to this, there is a lack of graduate intake programs for offshore projects in Victoria, which means that younger candidates wishing to work in the region have had few opportunities to do so.

There are ways to remedy this situation. Employers need to focus on providing attractive training opportunities to interest younger candidates, and aligning themselves with the best universities in order to capture graduates.

They should also be harnessing the knowledge and expertise they already have in-house by creating mentoring programs, where the more experienced employees help to train the younger members of the workforce.

It is imperative that employers begin developing relationships with specialist technical recruitment companies, particularly those with strong overseas and multi-industry contacts, and proven graduate recruitment expertise.

There is an opportunity for employers to think laterally about their recruitment options. Clever companies have already begun to see that recruiting across industries is a viable option, allowing talented professionals to share their technical knowledge in different areas.

Cross-training – where skilled workers are trained in processes other than their original chosen industry – provides some very attractive benefits to younger candidates. With many technical graduates wary of being pigeonholed in one industry, providing opportunities for career progression across different technical industries will make your company a very attractive employment option for talented employees.

Projects due to commence early next year will provide some excellent career opportunities for young candidates, with a lot of scope for progression.

Already, recruitment companies have experienced interest from younger candidates wishing to work in the region. This interest will continue to increase as companies begin to provide more training opportunities, and focus on attracting young talent by thinking laterally about their recruitment options.

Nick is the General Manager of TAD Technical Careers and Contracts in Victoria, an international engineering, technical and trades recruitment organisation. He has 7 years recruitment industry experience, particularly in the specialised areas of oil and gas, automotive, heavy engineering and mining. Nick is based in Melbourne. TAD can be reached on (03) 9920 5777.