WA's Game-Changing Campaign: How Free TAFE Courses and Skilled Migration Are Solving the Tradie Shortage

A New Advertising Blitz Aims to Fill WA's Tradie Shortage

A new advertising campaign is underway to convince locals to fill a tradie shortage, but Premier Roger Cook emphasizes that more skilled migrants are also needed, dismissing concerns that this would increase housing demand.

Launching the "You Can Make It Here" Campaign

Roger Cook met with students at North Metro TAFE on Monday to launch the "You Can Make It Here" advertising campaign. This initiative promotes training courses for Western Australia's most in-demand trades in health and construction.

Extended TAFE Enrolment Deadline

The Government is extending the deadline for TAFE enrolments by two weeks. Skills Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson denied this was due to low enrolments, stating, "This is to allow the campaign to inspire people." She added, "It’ll be across multi-media platforms and really to make sure that we’re filling all of those places in all of those fee free and low-fee courses." Whether you're in a career looking to retrain or leaving school to enter a trade, you are virtually guaranteed a job at the end of it.

Push for More Skilled Migrants

Mr. Cook highlighted that record investment in TAFE ensures locals benefit from the state's growing economy, but he's intensified efforts to attract more skilled migrants to Western Australia. "We need more workers, we need more skilled migrants coming to WA either from the East Coast or from overseas," he said.

The Premier revealed he has not yet received a response to his letter asking the Prime Minister to scrap plans to reduce WA's allocation under the State Nominated Migration Program from 5000 to 3400 places. He warned this cut would hinder the Albanese Government's national housing accord targets, stating, "We believe and agree with the Prime Minister when he says he wants 25,000 homes in WA built each year. But to do that we need the workforce and we need workers in droves, in our mining industry, in our housing construction industry."

Addressing Housing and Growth Challenges

Mr. Cook acknowledged that migration adds to housing pressures but called it the better option. "It’s part of the complexity of the task that we have in front of us," he said. "We need more schools, we need more hospitals and we need more workers. We get more workers, and we need more homes and schools and hospitals. But I’ll take challenges of growth any day over challenges of a shrinking inflation. Western Australia’s economy is growing faster that any other economy in the nation, almost double the national average. That’s why we need to continue to make sure that we stoke our economy with more workers, more skills."