Director of Monash University's Centre for Population and Urban Research Asks "Is Australia's prosperity delivering dividends in the education and training that the country needs?" (October 30, 2006)

    Bob Birrell is the director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University and author with Virginia Rapson of Clearing the Myths Away: Higher Education's Place in Meeting Workforce Demands. The 17 page report was produced in partnership with the Dusseldorp Skills Forum and looks at the factors affecting populating Australia's workforce through 2051.

Dr Bob Birrell: There is plenty of scope to increase the proportion of young people studying in both the higher education and vocational training sectors, and to do so on the basis of well-informed policy rather than myths.

Dr Birrell has also written an opinion piece for The Age summarising the conclusions reached in the report.

The report concludes that Australia's prosperity is clearly not delivering dividends in the education and training that the country needs. "Debate on this issue has been muddied by the assertions of some Coalition Government leaders that past training priorities in Australia have involved excessive emphasis on higher education at the expense of trade training. Such assertions are not supported by the empirical evidence assembled for this report. Training at the higher education and trade level should not be seen as in opposition..."

Dr Birrell delineates three "popular myths about education and training [which] seem  to have hijacked public debates" regarding the education and training that the country needs?

1. There has been too much emphasis on university education.

2. There is inherent conflict between expanding trade training and maintaining or increasing university education.

3. The number of young people entering the workforce will fall.

He then sums up the findings of the report in his opinion piece which are based on the data cited in the report.

Managerial, professional and associate professional occupations, most of which rely on workers with knowledge and skills derived from tertiary qualifications, are growing much faster than most other jobs.

By 2005-06, 38 per cent of all employed were in one of these three occupational groups [professionals, associate professionals and managers].

[T]here has only been a marginal increase in university commencements by domestic students over the past decade. The Federal Government has maintained an effective cap on the number of university places for domestic students since it came to office.

The gap has been partially filled through immigration, and the report concludes that the federal government has neglected the problem. Dr Birrell writes, "There has been plenty of sectoral reform to universities but little demonstrable improvement in access or opportunity.

As regards the mantra repeated by both the Prime Minister, John Howard, and more especially by the previous Minister for Education, Science and Training, Brendan Nelson, that far too many young people are not being equipped for a labour market increasingly demanding technical, analytical and managerial skills, Dr Birrell's rebuttal is, "In 2005, 46 per cent of school leavers were not enrolled in any post-school education. There were also large numbers of young adults not working full time or studying full time: about 20 per cent of 20-year- old men and 30 per cent of 20-year-old women, for example." In short there exists a large untapped pool from which to draw recruits if properly accessed.

Finally, he deals with the "myth" of a declining pool of young people for the workforce.

Migration and re-skilling of older workers are valid policy choices to help meet this.

But training young Australians offers the greatest potential source of additional skilled workers, and is the most efficient and productive policy approach.

Near universal engagement of young Australians in education and training in the years after school will be needed, and it should not be achieved coercively but through ways such as sharply increasing the number of funded university places for domestic students; improving student accessibility to university campuses; and offering financial support for students from families of modest income.

And according to the report:

[S]ome prospective students, particularly those considering attending regional universities, are not taking up the places they are offered [at universities]. This situation appears to reflect a combination of improvements in job opportunities and the difficult financial circumstances many prospective students face in providing for their living expenses while in full-time study. Since the Coalition came to power it has diminished access to the youth allowance available for full-time students and, as well, has increased the level of HECS debt that students incur when they complete their studies.

[But] at least as far as the overall numbers of potential students are concerned, there is no incompatibility between expanding opportunities for training in both the university and trade arenas.