Regional Victorian town finds solution to skilled worker shortage by embracing migrants

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Right now, jobs generally aren't hard to find in rural and regional Australia. Yet they can be extremely hard to fill with skilled workers, causing headaches for many local businesses. One town in Victoria has found an effective solution by looking further afield.

Transcript

00:00The sparks are flying, the acrid smoke of molten metal fills the air.

00:17And another wood heater frame rolls off the production line at Gaysons Manufacturing in

00:22Ararat.

00:23This 80 year old family enterprise is a major employer in this central highlands Victorian

00:29town of about 8,000 people.

00:31We've got over 100 staff on site and actually sales people as well.

00:36And through different parts they do welding, painting, assembly, office administration

00:42as well.

00:43So there's quite an array of work we actually have here on site.

00:47The firm designs and manufactures wood heaters and a wide range of farm machinery.

00:53For that you need skilled welders and metal workers and they're often in short supply.

00:58Behind the welding masks are men whose stories are both harrowing and inspiring.

01:05I was born in a refugee camp.

01:07My parents left Myanmar because everything was getting chaotic and there was mass murdering

01:14and stuff by the military.

01:16So my parents moved to a refugee camp and later they came to Australia around 2006, 2007.

01:25Ararat Rural City Council has been at the forefront of attracting and resentling migrants.

01:30Giving them a sense of purpose, a sense of living, a sense of family and we are supporting them too.

01:39We've got an opportunity here.

01:41We've got a lot of manufacturing firms as well as like Gaysons, the Abattoir for example.

01:47We are in need of people but the locals or some of our own citizens, they are not comfortable in doing these jobs.

01:56It gives our local employers confidence that they can invest and grow and without that sort

02:01of stability of the workforce they can't reinvest, they can't attract new investment or new contracts

02:07because they can't fill the contracts that are required.

02:10Without them we would be shorter hands to physically be able to make these amazing machines that you see behind us.

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