A Skills Summit is to be held on 30 June this year with leaders from a range of industrial sectors coming together to explore options for strengthening the local workforce.
Including leaders from n Defence, construction, healthcare and more, the Summit is expected to address the skills needed across the sectors to ensure WA continues to advance and keep globally competitive in the years ahead.
Premier, Mark McGowan said he wanted to hear from business leaders on what more could be done collaboratively to address existing skills needs.
Mr McGowan said the Government had already announced a program offering a fast track to an apprenticeship for local construction workers.
“The pilot Construction Accelerated Apprenticeship Program offers construction workers without formal qualifications the opportunity to have their existing skills recognised, therefore cutting the time required to get an apprenticeship,” Mr McGowan said.
“Building a sustainable local workforce that can meet our immediate and long-term skills needs and support our big pipeline of economic activity, is a key issue that requires industry and Government to work together.”
He said many companies had policies to ensure jobs were provided to Western Australians first and he wanted this to continue across a range of sectors and big employers.
“Creating high quality jobs, and training Western Australians to do them, is the centrepiece of our State’s strong economic recovery and I am looking forward to sitting down with leaders from a range of areas to make sure we can continue to do this,” the Premier said.