Founded in 2001, Blue Tongue is an Australian-owned workforce development business and training provider whose purpose is to reinvent the way to solve Australia’s critical skills shortage of technicians in specialist maintenance and manufacturing areas, mining, rail heavy transport and defence industries through its Advanced Group Training and International Talent Hiring Programs.

Since 2005, Blue Tongue’s International Talent Program has sourced, hired, and sponsored more than 800 specialist heavy-duty technicians worldwide to work for its partner clients in the mining and transport industries. As the only Australian skills labour provider to gain government approval for three Labour agreements with the Commonwealth Government, Blue Tongue is recognised as an industry leader in mitigating risk and managing international recruitment and hiring projects to fill critical heavy technician skills shortages for major mining employers.

Blue Tongue’s commitment to solving skills shortages in the mining industry led to the development of its Advanced Group Training Programs in 2011, which brings new Australian skilled talent into the critically constrained pool of skilled mobile plant maintenance tradespeople. Blue Tongue’s training programs upskill mature-age tradespeople or semi-skilled workers to work in the industry and get paid as they gain a trade qualification. Blue Tongue employs successful candidates directly, paying for all their upfront training fees. They also pay the full-time employee wages while they train before starting with the Client. Not only does this provide a pathway for people who may have previously missed out on an apprenticeship opportunity, but it also leverages their existing knowledge and experience to streamline the process and reduce the time it takes to complete the apprenticeship. Blue Tongue provides the latest industry equipment and state-of-the-art technology for 6-10 weeks of full-time training (depending on the program being offered), which industry experts deliver at TAFE. The upfront training gives the apprentice the necessary experience to immediately begin working for one of Blue Tongue’s partner clients either onsite in a regional mining town in Western Australia on a FIFO roster or in the heavy transport industry or rail sector in both metro or regional locations. Since the inception of its first hiring and training program, Blue Tongue has upskilled more than a thousand people to gain highly sought-after dual trade (or trade) qualifications, career advancements and job security in a lucrative and booming industry.

For information about Blue Tongue, visit blue-tongue.com.au