Skilled migrants a focus of workplace training

Skilled migrants are expected to feature prominently in the workforce needed for Queensland’s emerging natural gas industries based at Gladstone.

This made it vital for Gladstone Regional Council to consult organisations representing people with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, when it developed a new multicultural training program earlier this year.

Council multicultural relations officer Luis Arroyo canvassed a broad range of community views, with the result that the half-day program is shaping up as a model for other fast-growing industrial cities.

“Our training session is really three presentations within one program,” says Luis, whose position is partly funded by the Department of Communities under the Local Area Multicultural Partnerships (LAMP) program.

“Each session complements the other. The first presentation covers Indigenous cross-cultural issues and relates to the Gooreng Gooreng people.

“The second aims to raise awareness of multicultural issues for Australian workers. And in the third part we try to provide a cultural bridge for overseas workers in the audience.”

Luis says the liquefied natural gas industry has shown “significant interest” in having the training included in its induction program for new employees. It has also been well received by international management services company Hatch
and Associates.

Hatch and Associates regional manager Wylie Pearson says the training “successfully discusses many of the day to day issues experienced by a highly diverse workforce in the context of a multinational company such as ours”.

“Because the information was applicable to the audience and the local environment, this ensured the enthusiasm of the audience was maintained throughout the presentation,” Wylie says, in a letter to the council.

For information about the Local Area Multicultural Partnerships (LAMP) program phone 3224 5006 or visit www.communities.qld.gov.au/multicultural/community/community-partnerships

Berg Engineering

Some businesses in the Gladstone region have only been able to operate through sponsoring skilled overseas workers. This factor has strongly influenced the cultural and linguistic diversity across the region — a key feature that is expected to continue to grow with the region’s emerging natural gas industry.

Berg Engineering in Gladstone, where skilled migrants are critical to the company’s business.

Skilled migrants are a critical part of how Berg Engineering manages its growth in Australia’s expanding natural gas markets.

Berg general manager Wayne Needs says the business is all about precision machining, requiring skilled tradespeople who can operate very expensive machinery.

“Finding skilled staff has always been challenging for Australia given that we have such a small manufacturing pool to source skilled tradespeople from,”
Wayne says.

“We bring people in from interstate and overseas to support our growth.

“A multicultural program will be of great benefit to Berg because it will help the migrant workers to feel more comfortable and relaxed in their new environment.

“Migrants bring many skills and competencies to our regional workforces so we should have programs like this to help the process along.”