With employers beating down his doors for skilled workers, Real Futures’ Sean Challis can’t afford to waste time on ‘training for the sake of training’.
The manager of Carnarvon’s Real Futures’ Gascoyne Community Development Program says local demand will be high for the 24 recent graduates of the Certificate III Course in Civil Construction Plant Operations run by Training Alliance Group (TAG).
The 16-week course attracted 27 enrolments culminating in the May graduation, with a similar success rate to an earlier course where more than half of participants went straight into jobs.
“Long-term courses can be difficult for some but because the engagement from the instructor was so good the students held in there,” Mr Challis said.
“We had one person who was long term unemployed but who now works for the council, and he went from being a labourer to a supervisor within the first month.”
TAG Director Bala Suppiah said a close working relationship with industry and government at all levels helped to ensure good job opportunities for quality training graduates in community-based organisations, particularly during the current critical skills shortage.
“The pandemic has only added to existing labour shortages and has renewed focus on skills training in courses like those provided by TAG across the State,” he said.
Graduating from the Certificate III courses in Civil Construction Plant Operations
Skilled labour can be even tougher to secure in the regions, so to have large numbers of quality graduates from our training courses in Carnarvon and other regional areas can make a real difference where it matters — giving people the skills to fill those gaps.”
Mr Challis, who has 1200 job seekers on his caseload across the Gascoyne, said many graduates had overcome challenges and almost given up hope of finding work before doing TAG training.
“We had a 56-year-old man who had not been employed for years, and he got a job as a roller operator straight away and has been working ever since,” he said.
Graduating from the Certificate III courses in Civil Construction Plant Operations
