New Zealand's government has been urged to give the go-ahead to plans for a multi-million dollar oil and gas training school in order to address shortage of workers facing businesses operating in the Taranaki region.

Already talks have taken place between the department of labour, the Tertiary Education Committee and a number of private enterprises, including Origin Energy and Shell Todd.

However, Taranaki's business development manager Jed Rowlands has called for more to be done to ensure that there are sufficient skilled workers to fill the oil and gas sector, which is expected to employ more than 3,000 people by 2026, in comparison to the current 800.

In particular, he has pointed to the success of the Australian Centre for Energy Process Training in Perth, with the Witt university campus well-suited for this purpose.

"It will be fantastic to have something like that in Taranaki ... there's nowhere else you can do that in New Zealand," he told the Taranaki Daily News.

It is expected that the New Zealand government will draw up an action plan to address the oil and gas skills shortage in August.