Australia's Engineers Shortage Noted by Popular Media. (January 5, 2005)

    An analysis reported by a group led by Professor Bob Birrell, Director of the Centre for Population & Urban Research at Monash University, has found that "Severe shortages of professional engineers are now evident in Australia. Yet the Australian Government has shown no interest in expanding domestic training levels."

Professor Bob Birrell

As reported in The Sydney Morning Herald the number of students starting university engineering courses declined from a peak of 11,500 in 1997 to 10,727 in 2004 but Professor Birrell told the Herald that the decline had been disguised by changes in the way student statistics were calculated and the rise in numbers of those doing postgraduate courses, which kept them away from joining the engineering workforce per se. It was likely that a modest increase indicated by the new way of counting student commencements was a consequence of students extending their courses, probably reflecting the necessity of some to work part-time to make up for the decline in student living allowances since 1996.

The Monash analysis concludes that during an economic boom, when there was rising demand for engineers to build infrastructure including freeways and mines, official figures showed skilled occupations in short supply included civil, mining, chemical and petroleum engineers. "The shortage of engineers will become more acute because over the next few years domestic completions … are unlikely to rise, given the slight fall in commencements in recent years," Professor Birrell told the Herald.

The scarcity of local graduates had been partly offset by a rise in foreign graduates, up from 2331 in 2001 to 3306 in 2003, and while the report acknowledged that Australian employers were attracting significant numbers of overseas engineers on temporary work visas, this was at the expense of local access to the engineering profession.

Furthermore, in Professor Birrell's view the Government seems to have "backed itself into a corner" by restraining the number of government-financed university places while expanding places for trade apprentices. He concluded, "I agree we need more people in the traditional trades but I do not think cutting access to universities will solve the problem."

And of course this shortage is against the background of an increasing world-wide demand for engineers and engineering academics. (see previous News & Views).