The Queensland Government is supporting the mining sector’s next generation of workers with a $2 million investment into the Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy (QMEA).
QMEA is launching a series of digital technology and physics workshops at three schools across the Mackay, Isaac, and Whitsunday regions. The workshops demonstrate how the academy is adapting and evolving with industry needs, ensuring the future resources workforce has the right skills to embrace opportunity.
Minister for Finance, Trade, Employment and Training Ros Bates says regional hubs in Rockhampton and Townsville will be opened in 2026 and 2027 – with the aim of reaching 10,000 additional students.
Despite being an attractive industry, mining has some of the most acute skills shortages in Australia.
As Mining.com.au reported, more than 65 million youth are unemployed. In Australia, the youth unemployment rate remained at 4.4% as of October 2025, in comparison to 9.6% in June 2025.
The Mining and Automotive Skills Alliance reports that the mining industry’s skills shortage rose from 34% in 2021 to 63% in 2022. Competition with construction for certain skilled workers further intensifies the pressures and may be contributing to ongoing occupation shortages.
Skills shortages coupled with a reluctance of youth and graduates to join the mining sector presents a real challenge as well as capability risk for the mining sector.
A 2022 BDO report reveals that only 15% of respondents said they would be interested in mining, while 54% believed that the mining sector is an essential part of the global climate solution.
Even more telling, a 2024 McKinsey report highlighted 70% of young participants said they would definitely not or probably not work in mining, as Mining.com.au reported.
Janette Hewson, CEO of Queensland Resources Council (QRC), says with mining being among the largest employers in the region and nation, it is “logical” to encourage students to join the workforce.
“If they have a desire to become an engineer, environmental scientist, a metal machinist and fitter or play any role in an industry at the forefront of creating new technologies, then we are keen to support them achieve their goal,” Hewson says.
Mackay Christian College and Holy Spirit College, as well as Proserpine State High School are the first local schools to join the QMEA’s network under the Mackay regional hub expansion, funded by the Crisafulli Government to help more young people carve out pathways into the resources sector.
Member for Mackay Nigel Dalton says programs like one QMEA is running are essential to showing local students the careers available to them in the resources sector.
Under QMEA’s expansion, the first workshops delivered a digital technologies workshop, ‘Mining for Code’ with Year 7 students at Mackay Christian College and a physics workshop, ‘Pulleys for Productivity’ with Year 8 students at Holy Spirit College this week.
Both workshops explored how science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) concepts are applied into the working environment in the resources sector – such as operating autonomous vehicles and using pulley systems to move heavy loads.
When this news service reported on International Youth Day in August 2025, a generational gap came to light in the mining and resources sector, which is widening.
Skills shortages coupled with a reluctance of youth and graduates to join the mining sector is presenting a real challenge as well as capability risk for the mining sector.
As the mining industry grapples with an ageing workforce and a future that is continuously evolving, navigating the challenge may yet provide the opportunity.
Organisations such as QMEA, the education arm of the Queensland Resources Council, are working to change the narrative. By embedding mining into the classroom – not just a topic, but as a tangible, lived experience – QMEA is helping students see what is possible.
With reach across more than 100 schools and more than 6,200 students, QMEA crafts immersive, hands-on programs that bring the mining sector together. From virtual simulations to trade workshops, these experiences expose students to careers they might never have considered – or even know existed.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: QMEA & WA Government
