Department of Immigration industry outreach officer for the NSW Outreach Program Satinder Pasricha spoke to about 35 employers and employees at a seminar in Tamworth yesterday to clarify visa conditions and requirements.

“This shows that the need for skilled migrants means the industry engine is still chugging along,” he said.

Mr Pasricha said mining, agriculture, hospitality and health were the major industries suffering skills shortages and needing skilled migrant workers.

He said 15,000 chefs were needed from overseas last year in Australia.

“Hospitality is a big-ticket item because of the tourism aspect,” Mr Pasricha said.

“Lot of regional areas have tourist attractions.” He said there were also always shortages of doctors and nurses in regional areas.

Rural areas also found it harder to find skilled Australian workers because many people did not want to relocate from the cities. “That would be a major contributing factor to the local skills shortages,” he said.

“They can’t find Australians who are skilled or semi-skilled for those industries.”

Mr Pasricha said they visited regional areas to explain visa requirements and to give people clarifications.

He said if people couldn’t attend the seminar or needed further clarification, there was plenty of information on the Department of Immigration’s website.