Isaac Mayor Anne Baker trumpets skills training at Jobs and Skills Summit

Mackay, Clermont and Moranbah are synonymous with coal but Isaac’s mayor reckons this new plan could trigger another boom industry in mining towns.

Central Queensland is coal country but education and skills training could become its next big industry following the Albanese government’s pledge to fund 180,000 new free TAFE places.

The announcement is one of the big tangibles from the Jobs and Skills Summit and for Isaac Mayor Anne Baker, it means gold for towns like Moranbah and Mackay.

“The fundamentals of training, the skills and training element, can actually be delivered within region,” she said on the first day of the conference in Canberra.

A place-based delivery model would train up the country’s workforce outside of the capitals, keeping workers in the region and linking them immediately to regional industries.

Resources Centre of Excellence CEO Steven Boxall said Mackay was “absolutely” positioned to capitalise on a boom in skills training.

Isaac Mayor Anne Baker meets with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra on September 1. Picture: Contributed

“We are already seeing companies that are using VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) tech to have people and experts dial in from all over the world to run training,” he said.

“It’s the platform and model you have that enables you to deliver that that is most important.”

Mr Boxall said the proposed Isaac Resource Excellence Hub could give Bowen Basin towns like Moranbah and Clermont the platform they needed to become training hubs.

“It is creating a blank canvas and providing the physical location that any university or training institute can set up permanently or semi-permanently to deliver the skills training they want,” he said.

GW3's Cindy Baker and RCOE CEO Steven Boxall at the RCOE LeadIn 2022 conference. Picture: Duncan Evans

“The training rooms are set up with all the latest tech and one week there is a tafe course running, the next week university micro credential course and the next a mining company.

“This is all music to our ears in terms of what we have been working to in the Mackay Whitsundays region.

“I think we have already semi set-up ourselves up to take advantage of some of these announcements.”

Isaac Council will spend $2m on industry engagement and a feasibility study for the resource excellence hub.

Mayor Baker spoke with Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the summit.

Originally published as Isaac Mayor Anne Baker trumpets skills training at Jobs and Skills Summit