Graduate Careers Australia
The Graduate Grapevine - Number 5, September 2006
Skilling Australia: Addressing the Nation’s Skills Shortages
The increasing shortages of skills across many work categories, and the means of addressing these shortages, were addressed by political, industry and educational leaders at the recent Australian Financial Review ‘Skilling Australia 2006’ conference held in Sydney on 18-19 September.
Graduate recruiters have encountered the shortage of available new entrants to the marketplace for a number of years, particularly in disciplines such as Accounting, Engineering, and some areas of Information Technology, Health and Education. However, as the conference indicated, the call for non-tertiary educated skilled workers is also increasing, and people with many trade and related qualifications are also in short supply.
The importance of this issue to the nation was highlighted in addresses to the conference by the Prime Minister, The Hon. John Howard MP, and the Federal Deputy Leader of the Opposition, The Hon. Jenny Macklin MP. In his keynote address, the Prime Minister highlighted the structural and demographic factors underpinning these shortages, quoting figures from the Productivity Commission which indicate that:
- in 2000-05, there was a net increase of 175,000 in the workforce per annum
- by 2010, this figure would decrease to 138,000 per annum
- by 2020-30, the overall increase per annum would reduce to 57,000.
His party’s approach to the issue focused on three prime areas of increased effort:
- improving the basic skills of the existing workforce
- lifting apprenticeship completion rates
- increasing the opportunities for the attainment of higher level skills, especially in Science, Engineering and Technology. In recognition of the importance of this, the government will be funding 510 new tertiary places in Engineering and 200+ in Technology courses.
The Opposition’s approach, as outlined by The Hon. Jenny Macklin, focused on the establishment of secondary trade schools, the introduction of a ‘Trade Completion Bonus’ and HECS relief for students enrolled in areas of skills shortage.
Various state politicians outlined strategies being adopted within their own jurisdictions, and we heard an interesting panel discussion on the importance of the skilled migration program to the ongoing future of Australian industry.
Educational representatives discussed the importance of not only attracting young people into various streams of further training and education, but also retaining them within those streams, noting the high attrition rates of young people not only from apprenticeships, but also from university and, indeed, from their first year in the workforce. They noted that, of all students in Year Seven at secondary school,
These challenges of attracting, and retaining, this younger generation of workers (‘Gen Y’) were addressed by a variety of industry and employer representatives, and the importance of providing ongoing training and development for workers was a particular focus. In response to a question regarding the high cost of training new employees who may then leave the organisation within a short period of time, one speaker provided a memorable quotation indicating a lateral way of thinking about this issue:
“What if I train people and they leave…well, what if I don’t train them and they stay”.
Another memorable quote came from Jacinta Caithness, General Manager, Franchising at the hugely successful Boost Juice group. Jacinta discussed Boost’s approach to recruitment which looks at ‘raw’ recruits vs ‘refined’ recruits. She suggests that Boost does not discount the ‘raw’. The company looks for a good match with Boost’s culture but then “recruit on attitude and train for experience”. Good news for those who may commence their career without ALL the requisite skills.
Dr Robert Care from ARUP (a global design, project management and business consulting firm) noted that, in relation to the economy, usually one area of the world is quiet while others are busy. Now everywhere is busy. The Engineering industry in Australia has grown by 30 per cent in the last few years. He quoted figures that indicate 50 per cent of people with Engineering qualifications aren’t working in the field of Engineering. Moreover, of those who are, only 25 per cent are doing technical work, the rest are in management. From an overseas perspective, Avril Henry, Director AH Revelations, stated that by 2010, 60 million workers in the European Union will have retired. European organisations will therefore also be looking for our well educated and skilled people to replace them. We currently have one million Australians living overseas and working and that looks set to grow.
While there was no ‘simple solution’ to the skills shortage issue, as would be expected, most speakers agreed that there would need to be genuine and intelligent cooperation between all parties involved in this issue – governments, industry and educational bodies, and that all sectors would need to work efficiently and effectively together to achieve progress in the coming years.
Cindy Tilbrook, Executive Director – GCA
Di Rachinger, Business Development/Relationships Manager – GCA
|
