In the largest single skilled labour deployment from India, the Australian government has decided to train one lakh miners from the country.
The pool of trained workers will be dipped in by Australian and Indian companies for deployment at their operations across the globe.
India has long trumpeted its position as a key resource centre for skilled labour in the world. But in global trade negotiations it has had an indifferent record in making its trade partners accept deployment of Indian skilled labour in various sectors. Several trade negotiations like the extension of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with Singapore have got stuck on this issue.
In this context, the Australian government?s decision to allow more leeway for miners to tap its companies is significant. The training will be both in India and Australia, according to a release by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Recently, Australian minister for skills and jobs Senator Chris Evans had said his country wanted to collaborate with India in training skilled labour for mining and construction to support both India?s and Australia?s need to build a highly-skilled and well-trained workforce. Evans had also met the labour ministry officials to brief them about the training programmes.
Speaking about the meeting, a labour ministry official said, ?We are perfectly fine with such collaborations. There was a little apprehension about taking these workers to Australia and train them there. If it is at a lower cost and with some placement guarantees, we are fine with that too. However, we have told them to set up their institutes here itself so as to offer maximum benefits to Indian mining companies.?
Peter Linford, senior trade and investment commissioner (South Asia), minister commercial, Australian High Commission, told FE that the Australian authorities had already spoken to Indian mining companies about the shortage of skilled manpower and the kind of training they wanted for their workforce. ?The courses and programmes will be designed according to the requirement of the industry. Since Australia is already using most advanced technologies in mining, it can easily train the Indian workers/students for that,? he said.
He, however, maintained that through these training programmes Australia was not at all looking at meeting its own requirement for skilled labour. ?Our priority is not to take people away from India and place them in our mining industry. We would offer training that would be certified globally. So, if the person wants to take up job anywhere in the world, he\she can do it,? he said, adding that there was no cost advantage for Australia in going for Indian labour as they would be paid at the same level as an Australian worker.
The country has planned a three-phase strategy under which it will collaborate with various Indian education institutions to offer short-term certified programmes. It will also set up an independent Australian Mining and Resources College.