Ministerial Release
$350,000 for timber industry careers
21st March, 2007
The Minister for Forestry and Conservation, Senator Eric Abetz, and the Minister for Vocational and Further Education, the Hon Andrew Robb AO MP, today announced the Australian Government will provide funding of $350,000 to promote and develop careers in the timber industry.
The National Communications Strategy for the Wood and Paper industry will help industry employers develop a better understanding of how they can engage with the National Training System, in particular the benefits of employing Australian Apprentices and the use of training packages to address their workforce skills development needs.
"The wood and paper industries are vital, legitimate and expanding industries," Senator Abetz said.
"As our plantation forest estate plantation expands in coming years it will be vital that more people consider a career in the timber industry.
"Forestry's excellent environmental credentials in providing a genuinely renewable resource, together with its important role as the only sector of our economy to be carbon positive, makes it a career choice for the future."
Mr Robb said that a key plank of the strategy will be school-based education about the potential for a career in the timber industry.
"With unemployment at historic lows and the wood and paper industry facing skills shortages in a number of occupations, it is important that the industry promote its viability as a career of choice to young Australians," Mr Robb said.
"Promoting apprenticeships in the timber industry will be a significant component of this."
Senator Abetz said the strategy was informed by the findings of a recent report which considered factors that influence the growth and stability of the forest industry including: supply and demand; market trends; employment; demographics; and socio-economic implications.
The Strategy will be in facilitated by the key industry bodies the National Association of Forest Industries and A3P, and will be in place by the end of March 2007.