As a journalist at iTnews:
A newly-awarded Federal Government labour agreement will allow three recruitment companies to hire and land skilled workers from overseas.
In accordance with a newly implemented overhaul of the 457 Visa system, the agreement ensures that members of the recruitment industry meet the country’s targets for foreign skilled hires.
IT recruiter 3W, which was awarded the agreement this week, expects the 457 Visa reforms to facilitate the recruitment of skilled professionals from overseas to help meet the demands of Australia’s skills-short market.
“In the past, the Recruitment and On Hire Industries have displayed an inability to regulate themselves in relation to the hiring of overseas workers,” said Bruce Mills, joint CEO of 3W.
“Collectively they have made significant returns from this source of workers; however their reinvestment into building the local IT skills base has been questionable.”
“The new On Hire rules bring long-needed regulation and will support appropriate investment and industry development,” he said.
457 regulations encourage companies to adhere to the Australian immigration system by fast-tracking skilled temporary visa applications that are lodged by recognised employers.
While the agreement means that more Australian jobs will be granted to international workers, 3W Director and joint CEO Andrew McCarroll believes that it may alleviate the larger threat of offshoring.
“This overseas pipeline of skills will also allow many of our clients to commit to new IT projects, confident that they can resource these projects from the local workforce, supported by key skills sourced from offshore,” he said.
“We are already aware of a number of situations where this will be a defining factor in the decision not to send whole projects offshore to locations such as India,” he said.
