Workforce

Queensland has a highly-skilled, motivated, employment-ready workforce. The State's enviable lifestyle and low cost of living have been major drawcards for skilled people to migrate here, and for companies to retain their staff.

Queensland continues to be the preferred destination for Australians who are relocating from other states. During the year 2007-08, Queensland attracted an impressive net interstate migration of 24,300 people seeking new prospects and opportunities.

Net interstate migration for the year ending March 2008:

As the State's population has increased, so has the number of:

• skilled professionals in the workforce
• tertiary institutions, schools and training providers
• Queenslanders who are multilingual.

Multilingual skills

A key strength of Queensland's workforce is the abundance of multicultural and multilingual workers.

Queensland's lifestyle, education and opportunities attract migrants and students from many countries across the globe, particularly from the Asia Pacific region. Such migration means the State has a large workforce of multi-lingual speakers who can communicate effectively with international customers and clients.

Number of multilingual people in Brisbane and Queensland:

Industrial relations

Queensland businesses benefit from a stable and undisruptive industrial relations climate:

• Queensland has the lowest rate of average days lost annually to industrial relations disputes of any state in Australia
• Queensland averages 3.6 days lost per 1000 employees in comparison to the national average of 9.2 days
• Queensland heavily outperforms both New South Wales and Victoria with days lost averaging 16.8 and 6 respectively.

Education and training

• Universities
  Queensland's universities offer world-class education and are keen to work with local companies to tailor courses to suit their specific skills requirements.
• Queensland universities have developed a reputation over recent years for excellence in the higher education sector
• Queensland is home to nine of Australia's 37 universities located in both metropolitan and regional areas
• research conducted at Queensland universities has achieved world-wide acclaim
• students can choose from over 800 bachelor degrees
• over 190,000 students enroll annually in courses
• more than 50,000 international students from 165 countries attend Queensland universities.
  
  
• Technical and further education (TAFE) colleges
• Australia's most prominent vocational education supplier
• over 250,000 students enroll annually in employment and training programs at TAFE college
• Queensland TAFE colleges offer education in over 800 skill areas to students in more than 80 locations.
  
  
• Schools
• Queensland has more than 2,300 primary and secondary schools
• more than 700,000 students are currently enrolled in Queensland schools.

For more information visit education and training in Queensland or contact us.