Infrastructure rollout sees increasing ‘squeeze’ on skilled rail workers

And this is the case for projects that are funded by Federal or State Governments or in conjunction with private parties.
“We are now having to recruit overseas simply because of the shortage in skilled resources here in Australia to meet the demands of the works that are planned to be undertaken or currently being worked on,” Howe said.
“Business opportunities at the moment are extensive in rail and resources...and the resources market is going to continue to get more and more restricted, with new major mining and LNG projects coming on, heading into the start of 2010."
Howe believes that this is the result of many years of minimal training being undertaken in Australia, and was also due to the “obvious changes” caused by outsourcing. Traditionally, local, state and federally run maintenance and operations departments were the “breeding grounds” of industry specialists in previous decades, and were influential in maintaining the networks around Australia, he said.
ODG Rail, the specialised rail division of O’Donnell Griffin, part of Norfolk Group, was recently awarded $96.5 million for BHP Billiton’s RGP5 works in Western Australia’s Pilbara, bringing ODG’s total contracts for electrical and rail-related works on the development to more than $149 million since late 2002.
It is also an alliance partner in the $1 billion Novo Rail alliance urban rail upgrade in Sydney, winning Australia’s largest rail signalling contract, and is presently expanding in the mine-to-market sector.
Currently conducting interviews in the rail engineering sector in the UK for positions predominantly in high voltage distribution, OHLE and signalling, Howe said ODG Rail is planning to recruit a number of staff there and has already shortlisted 35 professional candidates.
“This international approach is consistent with the need to generally grow our rail skill base both internally and externally,” ODG divisional human resource manager Craig Golds said.
“The mix of specialist rail people coming into the wider ODG team will also further assist in helping to mentor the latest group of talented graduates from our specialist rail graduate program. The program originated in Victoria but we recently launched it nationally and see it as one of the cornerstones of growing our talent bank within the rail sector.”