我们为什么要引进印度的unskilled farmer, 而不是中国的大学生!

ARJUN Lal was one of India's millions of unskilled farm labourers struggling to earn more than $2 a day.

Then an Australian construction firm came recruiting in his Rajasthan village.

For the past three weeks, the 21-year-old has been living in a Leighton India training centre on the edge of New Delhi, learning the basics of construction alongside 60 fellow recruits, who spend their mornings in the classroom and the afternoon practising their new-found skills over and over again.

A week from now, they will graduate to the next phase of the course, a three-month apprenticeship on one of Leighton's 12 Indian projects that will lead to a TAFE certificate, a well-paying job with medical benefits and -- just maybe -- work overseas.

"I would like to work in Australia," says Lal, through a translator. "Since I've joined this batch, I've been hearing a lot about it, that it's a developed country with lots of work."

Australia is facing a critical shortage of workers, some estimates suggesting as many as 2.5 million people in the next four years, as record numbers of large natural gas and mining projects are being built. India, with its vast population and rising education levels, seems the obvious place to fill that breach. But as Australia's future talent pool, the big catch in the plan is India's own acute skilled labour shortage.

The vast inconsistencies in the quality of India's tertiary institutions has become a critical issue for foreign companies here who bemoan the lack of suitable job candidates among the millions of graduates churned out every year.

"You can't rely on the qualifications or capacity," says Leighton India managing director Russell Waugh.

Wipro, India's third-largest software exporter, runs a 90-day graduate training program to address what human resources vice-president Saurabh Govil calls the "inherent inadequacies" in Indian engineering education. While India has more than 1.5 million places in engineering colleges, a recent analysis of assessment results by the National Association of Software and Services Companies found 85 per cent of general graduates were unemployable.

"The key for India is training," says Mr Waugh.

"There's no shortage of intelligent people in India. The shortfall is in the training and to my mind the greatest shortfall of all is in the trades; plumbers, electricians, plasterers, welders -- that whole skill set is missing."

So desperate is India's skills shortage, the Indian government has set a training target of 500 million Indians in more than 20 key growth industries over the next decade.

The Australian government this month announced it would fast-track 457 temporary migrant visas for mining companies seeking foreign recruits for positions they can't fill from the domestic labour pool.

Austrade is championing the idea of Australian vocational training courses in Indian workplaces and institutions, and eventually an India-based Australian mining and engineering college, with the capacity to train as many as 100,000 Indian workers annually.

New Delhi-based senior trade commissioner Peter Linford says the aim is to help Australian education providers regain ground in the Indian market, lost through the rising Australian dollar and a tightening of student visas, and not to provide a labour pool for Australian mining projects.

Rio Tinto, which aims to bring two Indian mines on line in the next few years, says it would welcome training programs that raise skill levels and place greater emphasis on safety and on sustainability.

The plan has also received broad support from within India's mining, petroleum and oil and gas sectors, which sent a delegation to Australia this week to discuss new policy and technology developments.

Federation of Indian Minerals Industry chief R.K Sharma believes both countries would benefit from the skills and labour exchange.

"India is very mineral-rich but unless we get more modern technology and investment on a very large scale, we can't realise that potential," he said.

The question of whether India can spare its skilled labour is inevitably also arising.

A Confederation of Indian Industries study released last month found India's mining sector would experience serious skills shortages in coming years

Dilip Chinoy, chief of India's National Skills Development Corporation, says he would happily support and perhaps even help fund Austrade's proposal for an Australian mining college that provides labour for Indian-based companies.

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前两年咱家那一带拍买房子 -001- 给 001 发送悄悄话 001 的博客首页 (153 bytes) () 05/23/2011 postreply 18:12:37

NND,悉尼最好的东区和北区都不是华人主力 -东东西西- 给 东东西西 发送悄悄话 东东西西 的博客首页 (0 bytes) () 05/23/2011 postreply 18:55:17

我在想为什么不用中国的大学生培训做澳洲的Trade,比tmd印度农民好多了 -东东西西- 给 东东西西 发送悄悄话 东东西西 的博客首页 (0 bytes) () 05/23/2011 postreply 18:45:24

你傻逼啊?中国人那么精明,要不了两年他们都做老板去了,还得进口更多华人打工 -天外飞砖- 给 天外飞砖 发送悄悄话 天外飞砖 的博客首页 (114 bytes) () 05/23/2011 postreply 21:02:27

你是不是又被“滚蛋”了,可怜的小砖 -东东西西- 给 东东西西 发送悄悄话 东东西西 的博客首页 (0 bytes) () 05/23/2011 postreply 21:05:14

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