The Australian minerals industry has begun a recruitment drive for 27,000 skilled tradespeople in the southern Australian industrial hubs according to a report from The Melbourne Age. The total numbers sought comprise the estimated extra skilled workforce needed for mining over the next eight years.

The Now Hiring campaign is targeting skilled tradespeople in Geelong, Adelaide and Wollongong as the rapidly expanding industry seeks to meet its skills shortfall.

Set up as a pilot program targeting skilled trades people, the campaign is part of the Minerals Council of Australia’s (MCA) broader national strategy to promote career opportunities in the minerals industry and meet the estimated 70,000 additional workers needed in the industry by 2015.

MCA chief executive Mitchell Hooke said the minerals industry was at present experiencing a global supercycle of growth.

“We must attract skilled tradespeople if the industry and, indeed, Australia, is to fully capitalise on the opportunities of the strongest global market growth in a generation,” he said in a statement.

“We are not only offering well paid jobs, we are offering exciting career prospects.

“The minerals industry is at present experiencing double the wages growth of the all-industry average and has the most substantial on-the-job training expenditure per employee of any industry.”

Mr Hooke said specific tradespeople being sought were boilermakers/welders, metal fitters - mechanical, diesel and plant, mechanical engineering - diesel, heavy and light plant, and electrical trades.