The Overseas Skills Recognition Project aims to identify existing and potential barriers to the recognition of overseas skills and qualifications in Australia and develop solutions to overcome these barriers.

There are a number of aims achieved through this project including:

• Identifying why people with relevant overseas qualifications or experience are not working in industries for which they gained their qualifications;
• Identifying existing and potential barriers to the recognition of overseas qualifications or experience in Australia;
• Identifying what is required to have overseas qualifications recognised under the Australian Qualifications Framework including possible upgrading or retraining and how recognition can be standardised across trades and industries;
• Identifying and suggesting ways in which barriers to recognition and upgrading of overseas qualifications and qualifications can be achieved.

In order to achieve these aims migrants who are currently not working in the industry in which they gained their overseas skills, qualifications and/or experience were asked to participate in a survey and/or interviews. Research with employers and other key stakeholders was also conducted and findings will be presented to government, industry, employers and other relevant parties.

For more information about this project, please contact Laura Price on 9365 7657.

The Mismatch Project is a pilot project being conducted in the Minerals and Resources industry in Western Australia. As a result of the skills shortages in this particular industry, CCIWA is coordinating a project to match applicants with vacancies in the industry.

CCIWA sourced vacancies from employers in the Minerals and Resources industry throughout Western Australia, focusing particularly on Perth, Bunbury, Kalgoorlie and the Pilbara regions.

CCIWA also collected resumes and application information from over 170 applicants looking for work in WA's Minerals and Resources industry. The majority of these applicants were based in New South Wales and Victoria. These applicants were invited to sit aptitude tests, and have been matched with vacancies. Unsuccessful applicants received a kit providing applicants with advice about a range of training pathways and government programmes to assist them in their employment goals. 

The outcome of this project was to provide recommendations for facilitating this arrangement to better match the available labour pool across Australia with the vacancies of the Minerals and Resources industry.

However, the project also canvassed other issues such as the:

• need for additional processes for ensuring entry level training meets industry needs; 
• recommended strategies for the identification and filling of skills gaps;
• adequacy of incentives for existing workers to upgrade their skills in preparation for employment in another industry; 
• recommended strategies to increase the participation of groups such as indigenous people, or those with literacy or numeracy issues 
• adequacy of strategies and programs to encourage workers to move to remote centres with jobs; and 
• impacts of those issues affecting movement of labour to remote locations and across state boundaries.

These issues were canvassed in a number of roundtables held in February 2007 in Karratha, Port Hedland and Kalgoorlie.

For more information about this project, please contact Laura Price on 9365 7657

The Targeted Initiatives Programme is an Australian Government funded initiative which researches apprenticeships and traineeships within the Pilbara, Kimberley's and Goldfields. Apprenticeship and Traineeship commencements statistics are analysed to determine which apprenticeships and traineeship are being under - utilised in each region.

Visits to each region were then conducted to encourage employers to increase their uptake of apprentices and trainees, particularly in those trades which were being under utilised. Employers were also encouraged to take on disadvantaged groups such as indigenous people and people with disabilities.

One of the central aims of the research was to increase apprenticeship and traineeship commencement numbers in the three target regions by increasing awareness of employers to the value of apprenticeships and traineeships, while also researching barriers to the uptake of apprenticeships and traineeships in each of the regions and investigating possible solutions.

For more information about this project, please contact Laura Price on 9365 7657