Thread: large new dam : 27,000 jobs : really ?

On ABC's LandLine program a few weeks back it was covered

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226705303872

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-2...gation/5348474

So why with such high unemployment are we bringing in foreign workers?

I would just about give my left testicle to get in to earth works, but they want tickets (how on the dole do I find several thousand dollars) and once you have the tickets they want experience.
You would think employers would welcome older employees, we have maturity and work ethic and are less likely to abuse equipment.
I have 2 degrees both of which aren't worth the paper their printed on - if I knew then what I know now I would kept my ass glued to the chair instead of going to uni.

Hi Smidsy,
Commenting on another thread led me to poke my nose in here.
It is indeed unfortunate that industry want experience but appear reluctant to spend time training. You've got to get a toe in then you might get lucky and advance up the ladder, but the initial toe in is the near impossible part.
In the early 70s our boss in an earthmoving outfit wanted his crew to be able to operate all the machinery so would offer on the job training to any that wanted it.
There is a section of the rail access road which was always extremely rough, I used to tell my friends that that was where I was taught to drive a grader and it has never recovered.
At the end of the current contract I was made redundant under the last on first off policy, and was transferred to rail maintenance. Here on the job training was once again offered but I really wanted to get back into earthmoving. After some time I heard the Dirt Crew were looking to employ a labourer/ billy boy so I put my hand up and got the job. From there it wasn't long till I was back on a dozer.
In later years, working as an owner driver for a concrete outfit, we were still giving on the job training. Because the company couldn't compete with the wages and perks offered by the mining and oil/gas companies we frequently had to train agi drivers and this includes men in their 50's and the occasional woman, in many cases they'd fly the coop for a better paying job "on the Burrup" just when the company was starting to reap the benefits of hours of training.
I've been out of the workforce for a few years now but I'd hazard a guess that many of these contracting outfits are still offering on the job training.
You've got to be where it's happening and start at the bottom.
Cheers,
Geoff.

Originally Posted by smidsy

I would just about give my left testicle to get in to earth works, but they want tickets (how on the dole do I find several thousand dollars) and once you have the tickets they want experience.
You would think employers would welcome older employees, we have maturity and work ethic and are less likely to abuse equipment.
I have 2 degrees both of which aren't worth the paper their printed on - if I knew then what I know now I would kept my ass glued to the chair instead of going to uni.

I hear you loud and clear!

My degrees are pretty much toilet paper... the computing industry has changed so much that employers want "specialist" qualifications. eg. Someone who spent 18 months at TAFE doing just MS Access rather than someone who, as few decades ago, was deemed a Systems Analyst.

Ditto with earth-moving. I spent over 10 years in the mines and had (still have) the appropriate DLIs. FELs, excavators, etc. In a little blue book. But show that to prospective employers nowadays and it's like handing them chaiwanese flat-pack instructions. "What the effin' eff is this?" they ask. No, they want endorsements on a Driver's License (which, until very recently, I hadn't held since the early 80s! ) And what the hell are these Green Cards & White Cards and Blue Cards and... ???

It seems like employers don't want experience. They actually want someone with sufficient bits of otherwise useless paper to cover their butts just in case something goes wrong.


Mind you, I've been very lucky lately, having been hired as a wood machinist/set-up guy for a small, bespoke specialty joinery. I've no paper certiifications in the field at all, but they liked what I showed them in a trial period of a couple of days.

Sometimes ya just gotta be in the right place at the right time!