SYDNEY, May 5, 2011 (AFP) - Tens of thousands of Indian graduates could be trained to help deal with a skills shortage that threatens to seriously impact Australia's booming resources sector, a report said Thursday.
The Australian Financial Review said Australian and Indian officials have begun talks with tertiary institutions and resources companies in both nations about opening up Australia's training system.
This could involve educating as many as 100,000 Indians, mostly in Indian universities by Australian trainers, with up to 30,000 then recruited to work in Australia.
Australia has also indicated that it wants to open an Australian Mining University in India, with campuses in different cities, it said.
The newspaper added that India prompted the initiative after realising it needs about one million skilled workers to develop its own mining industries and sees Australia as the world leader in training for the resources sector.
Australian industry has warned it faces a massive skills shortage as the country's resource boom expands, driven by strong Asian, and particularly Chinese, demand.
A report by Skills Australia, which advises the government on workforce requirements, this week estimated the country will need 2.4 million more skilled workers within four years, many of them in mining companies.
Australia's senior trade official in India, Peter Linford, told the Financial Review that any Indians who came to Australia under the scheme would be employed on the same conditions as Australians, subject to immigration rules.
