Among the skills identified in the list are aged care; child care; aviation engineers and electricians. 

TAFE director Paul Callaghan said there were reasons the very different skills were in demand.

He said aged care was a good choice wherever you lived. 

“Australia has an ageing population and the New England/North West is no exception,” he said. 

“As our ageing population increases demand for highly skilled and qualified trained workers across the residential aged care industry and home care services increases.” 

Demand for electricians is never ending too. 

“Sparkies are as employable as ever,” he said. 

“With niche markets like solar installation, refrigeration and internet cable installation gaining ground   there is diversity within the field as well.” 

Aviation industry related skills, like aviation engineering, would be another area crying out for skilled workers.

Mr Callaghan said programs like EvoCities, designed to encourage people to move to the region, have encouraged more young families to relocate to the area and as a result employment in the child care industry was continuing to grow. 

“The demand for professional childcare services is stronger than ever,” he said.

Beauty therapy, farm skills, and sustainability areas are among the other skills shortage areas. 

“The agricultural industry is crying out for skilled labour,” he said.

Retail and community pharmacy could prove to be meal tickets too. 

“With the growth in businesses like Bunnings, Discount Chemist Warehouse, JB Hi-Fi and Aldi, the demand for skilled retail staff is booming,” Mr Callaghan said.

The increasing move to go green is also leading to a number of jobs being created in the horticulture and sustainability areas. 

“Sustainability will continue to be a critical issue for local councils, as well as private businesses in the region into the future,” he said. 

“Sustainable land management practices are highly sought after and the advantage of studying within this field.

“The teaching unit is completely mobile too, so there is flexibility with learning.” 

Those looking to study and gain employment elsewhere around the state should look into fields including accounting and IT, as well as nursing and child care. 

An analysis of the most in demand jobs from the latest quarterly report, produced by recruitment firm Hays suggests in addition to healthcare and IT, energy and finance industries are likely to experience skills shortages in the first quarter of the year.

Hays senior regional director Peter Noblet said demand from employers across those sectors across the country was likely to exceed the number of qualified job candidates.

He added that IT mobile specialists would be sought after by companies looking to allow their staff to work in a more flexibly way using a number of devices.

“There’s a fairly hefty move towards bringing your own device to work and working remotely,” Mr Noblet said.

“That also increases [jobs] relating to the security side of things, cloud networking and data centres behind mobile networks.”

Hays also forecasts a stronger start to the year for the construction industry, with a number of large scale projects to be awarded in some states which will increase recruitment for permanent jobs.

Skilled childcare workers are also in high demand with employers looking to shore up staff before the government’s introduction of new qualifications standards for early childhood educators on January 1, 2014.

Jobs website SEEK’s education division said a recent huge spike had been recorded in the number of people trying to become qualified child care workers. 

A spokesman for SEEK suggested the surge was a result of new laws being brought in to ensure child care workers already in the industry were qualified, but also reflected a growing number of people wanting to begin their career in the industry.