Misaligned Skills Shortage Focus
Phill Bevan
Advisor | Strategy, Technology, Capability ??????????????????~????????????????????~???????????????? ??????????????????
SkyNews reports that after Canada,?Australia?has the second worst skills shortage among the world's richest countries.
And yet the OECD notes that AUS has one of the highest HE attainment rates in the world, 25% above OECD average. A result of strong government focus on HE over the last decade.
Universities Accord Review chairperson Mary O'Kane says we need more from our universities and other higher education providers.
But also notes that Astralia already produces 4% of the world’s published research, though it has only 0.3% of the world’s population.
JSA's Interim Director Professor Peter Dawkins says Australia’s success in achieving close to full employment combined with a reduction in migrants during Covid-19 had caused the country’s skills system to “crack.”
Given the high level of HE attainment, what is he suggesting?
Seems we need migration to fill the Non-HE related occupations.
Maybe because we're not training our own population in VET occupations?
Back to Sky News reporting statistics that a total of almost half a million workers are needed in almost every industry, from hospitality and tourism to construction, technology, agriculture and mining, as well as teachers and nurses - There is also a severe shortage of tradespeople; mechanics, builders and plumbers - the list goes on.
Mainly VET related occupations.
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Appreciate that there are some shortages in HE related occupations - such as engineering, IT etc - but as I work with companies small & large (or just try to buy something, get a coffee, or get something fixed) it is VET related occupations where the majority of skills shortages are.
Demographer Bernard Salt has recently highlighted this.
Over the last 5 years, for low level occupations, the number of skill level 4 workers increased by 1% while demand for skill level 5 workers increased by 3%.
The numbers required for VET occupations are not decreasing - they are increasing - hence the shortages (leaving aside migration challenges).
What am I getting at?
In short, we remain FAR too focused on HE, driving one of the highest attainment rates in the world, while we have no workers for VET occupations - and we are NOT focusing enough on VET.
Back to Professor Dawkins "“We need to raise the status of these occupations like trades and also see very strong career paths into master trades, or high-level trades, advanced trades, and on into engineering and so on, and then pathways from VET to higher education and vice versa, and joint qualifications between VET and higher ed that raise the status of these kinds of roles.”
So what is the government doing?
--> Telling JSA to focus more on HE.
--> Telling HE to focus more on 'short form training'
Back to Universities Accord Review chairperson O"Kane "We’ve heard brilliant analyses of what is wrong and impressive examples of good practice, but a lot less about the opportunities and challenges of the medium and far future and the targets and system settings needed to address them."
Can't get the analysis on the targets & settings needed for HE in future - that's because we already have one of the highest attainments in the world, delivering research volumes far exceeding our population size. What more do you want??
I know... VET, VET, VET, VET, VET - an immediate additional half million VET, just to cover today please...