Caulfield said that because the industry was not prepared for the boom it had not invested the necessary time and money into long-term training schemes.

“As many people said over recent times, nobody saw this economic boom coming, and therefore that the aspect of people providing for the skills pool, generating skills for the future, slowed down considerably … the business doesn't need skills, therefore why should it generate skills," he said.

Since the boom began, Caulfield said the mining industry had "flown into action" to deal with the shortages of skilled workers, with more enterprises offering in-house training as well as tertiary and non-tertiary training programs dedicated to various roles within the industry.

In spite of all the training options being made available to industry entrants, Caulfield said the mining industry is still having trouble meeting its immediate need for workers.

“The difficulty we have in many cases is the time frame it takes to get someone from zero to 100 percent standard,” he said.

“Whether that person is a plant operator, whether that person is a tradesperson – as you know, most tradespeople take three or four years to develop – as well as those people at middle-management level in the range of skills that they have to have."

One of the reasons for the delay in training is the level of importance put on qualifications rather than workplace training, according to Caulfield.

“A lot of the training today is based on qualifications, is based on people doing courses, and there is little or no industry experience,” he said.

“Many people come to the industry, particularly the higher levels, with academic qualifications, but those skills that are required to work within our industry have to be learned, and are mainly learned on the job."

Caulfield said many training and industry organisations invest in technology such as simulators to help train new recruits faster; however, he said this technology cannot be used in place of actual industry experience.

In order to overcome the gap between training and the workplace, Caulfield said there needs to be more interaction between the mining industry and training organisations.

“We do need tertiary qualified people because it's a broad-based education system; however, there are definite skills a person needs when they in fact become operational people,” he said.

“A person in Germany becoming an engineer will not be given a qualification in engineering unless they've completed somewhere between six to 12 months actually on the job, and that's what competency based training is all about – doing the job.

“Tertiary should consider what is happening on the job and endeavour in the tertiary system that they in fact include substantially what people are doing on the job."