Steps to bridge work gap

By Shaun Inguanzo
DANDENONG remains one of metropolitan Melbourne’s unemployment hot spots despite a drop in people out of work and strong demand for workers.
Commercial and industrial bodies within Dandenong are already looking at options to bridge the gap that has seen unemployment remain close to eight per cent, almost five per cent higher than suburbs such as Berwick.
South East Melbourne Manufacturers’ Alliance (SEMMA) president Lyndon Joss said the group would work with South East Networks to establish a program to combat what he said was an ageing workforce.
In September last year unemployment in Dandenong was at 8.9 per cent, and 12 months later, had dropped to 7.9 per cent.
But Mr Joss said as skilled workers retired, there were not enough young people to take their places, and he feared that in 10 years, Dandenong would face a skills’ crisis.
“In 10 years’ time there will be a hell of a big hole and nothing there to fill it,” he said.
“We have a submission going at the moment which is fairly good, and it involves running a program in the new year aimed specifically at workforces and employers to enable the cross-transfer of skills.”
Mr Joss said the manufacturing industry had been plagued by dim images of dingy workplaces and unsafe practices, which was not the state of today’s manufacturing industry.
“We are not looking for brain surgeons, we are not necessarily looking for tertiary-qualified people, we are looking for people who are able to take on training as machine setters and operators and so on.”
Dandenong Chamber of Commerce president, David Carlson, said a technical college would be of benefit to Dandenong, “providing of course that the residents in Dandenong enrolled and attended”.
Mr Carlson said education was the key to ensuring Dandenong had lower unemployment rates and a stronger workforce.
He said the contrast between skills’ demand and unemployment showed Dandenong businesses were employing more people from outside the area.
Mr Carlson said low socio-economic areas within and surrounding Dandenong could be contributing to both the skills’ shortage and unemployment rate.
Greater Dandenong’s Economic Development Unit manager Alison Fitzgerald said the one per cent drop was at least a positive sign that unemployment was heading in the right direction – downwards.
She said council was reviewing the skills’ shortage as part of its Economic Development Strategy.