E&OE
Laura Jayes:
In 2021, almost 200,000 more students were completing vocational studies compared to 2016. In that same period, only 25,000 more people were studying at university. Joining me live is the Chief Executive of Universities Australia, Catriona Jackson. Catriona, great to see you. Thanks so much for your time. Why do you think this is?
Catriona Jackson:
Pleasure. Look, I think the message we’re seeing very clearly out of our census is that more people are undertaking study, Laura, and that is a good thing. We know that in the next five years, 90 per cent of jobs will need a post-school qualification. Either a vocational one, or a university one, more education is a good thing.
Laura Jayes:
People are picking TAFE though, in the last couple of years over university. Do you think that’s got something to do with the focus on trades and skill shortages?
Catriona Jackson:
I think it’s a good thing that people are undertaking any kind of education, Laura. We know we need more, not less, for the skills needs of the economy. If you just look around you, you can see there are really serious skill shortages in areas in which universities and vocational education providers can really help – nurses, doctors, health professionals all over the place, teachers. If you’ve walked into a hospital or a school lately, you know we simply don’t happen to have enough trained professionals, and universities can help.
Laura Jayes:
Does this have something to do… Of course, with our borders being closed for two years, not having international students, there’s a local element who tend to go for those vocational courses rather than look into universities.
Catriona Jackson:
I don’t think that’s the case, Laura. We’ve spoken about this so many times in the last couple of years, there have been real challenges getting into the country, and isn’t it nice being in a situation where that’s not the case so much anymore; but certainly domestic students, Australian based students, have been studying in really good numbers, the sorts of numbers we need for the economy, but we need to keep in mind, there have been changes in the last two years.
We’ve provided a lot more hybrid education online, so students can now choose to be part-time if they want to much more easily than before. Those figures in the census do see a little bit of an uptick in part-time study, and that completely makes sense. It also makes sense because there are lots of jobs around at the moment with unemployment, with a three in front of it. There are plenty of opportunities to go out and work and study at the same time.
Laura Jayes:
Yep. Some 400,000 jobs are vacant at the moment, that’s at least the estimate from the Business Council’s Jennifer Westacott. When it comes to the role that universities and TAFEs play, what is that role over the next couple of months and years? Are there perceived, or otherwise, barriers to getting into university?
Catriona Jackson:
The role that universities and that VET play in the next couple of months and in the years ahead is absolutely fundamental. We really need to make sure that we have the skilled graduates to be able to shove us into the future in the best possible way. Australia has a really sophisticated economy, but we need to make sure we’re doing two things: we’re training enough essential workers so we don’t have these skill shortages in the future, but also that we’re training the people, we’re educating the people who will create the new jobs, the new industries of the future. If we have a strong university system, a strong vocational education system, we have a strong economy. It’s as simple as that.
Laura Jayes:
What is your solution? If you like, not just on you and the universities, I might say, but this huge skill shortage, the migration getting fired up again. How are universities working with state and federal governments at the moment? And from what you’ve seen, the talks you’ve had, Catriona, do they get it?
Catriona Jackson:
Universities get it, vocational education providers get it, TAFE gets it. We are really looking forward to having a proper conversation.
Laura Jayes:
What about government?
Catriona Jackson:
The job summit coming up in September will be a place in which all of these issues will be really broadly discussed and deeply discussed.
We need to work out how we get the right balance between immigration and training our own people here. Clearly we’ve got some very serious problems, because the border’s been closed for that period of time. That’s a decision for government, but we really need to make sure that we’ve got the sovereign capacity in this country to make sure we’re training people for really good, fulfilling, high-wage, high-skill jobs. I say again, we have a strong university sector, a strong vocational education sector, we have a strong economy. It’s as simple as that.
Laura Jayes:
Yeah, it certainly is. Everyone wants to see those 400,000 jobs filled by Australian workers, that would be the absolute dream. But do you have an estimate of if that can actually be done, or what percentage Australian workers could fill those holes before you need to look at migration?
Catriona Jackson:
Those calculations will be going on in treasury and within government, but if you think about the future, and the future is where we need to look, we need to be able to deal with these sorts of challenges ongoing. So if you look ahead, the skills commission tells us that 90% of jobs in the next five years will need a post-school qualification.
So how do we set ourselves and the nation up for success? We make sure we have enough places for the students who want a university degree, enough places for students who choose TAFE, and that is a really good choice, choosing TAFE. And also, the sorts of connections between TAFE and between universities, we need to do better at that. We already do pretty well, but we need to have really good connections between the two sorts of education so that younger students, old students, middle-aged students can get exactly the education that they need to make sure that they can do the jobs. Some of those jobs, Laura, you and I won’t even know what they are yet. These are the really smart graduates who create new industries, new jobs, and just make sure that our economy is powering into the future.
Laura Jayes:
A new government, how does that change the way you work? Is it better or worse than the previous nine years?
Catriona Jackson:
We work with whichever government and whichever opposition is before us. The wonderful thing about the Australian democracy is we have a terrific range of parliamentarians to continue really good relationships with and really good conversations with. Certainly in the next couple of months, we’ve got a job of work ahead of us. We need to make sure we have enough places for… There are a lot more 18 year olds around in the next couple of years. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed that Peter Costello’s call to have “one for the country, one for me” actually got heard back 20 years ago, and we have lots more 18 year olds coming down the pipe in ’24 and ’25. We’ve got a job of work ahead of us in partnership with government and industry to make sure there is a place for every one of those students who want to go to university. And there are about 10,000 more of them in 2024, about another 10,000 more in 2025, so big job there.
Also, we need to have a serious conversation about research and how we fund it. You and I both know, Laura, that COVID laid bare the fragility of our research funding system. If we are to stay strong, stay productive, deal with the fact that we’ve got this gap between inflation and wages, we need to absolutely make sure we’ve got the smart people getting the qualifications they need to be productive members of the economy.
Laura Jayes:
Yep, absolutely. Catriona Jackson, always great to talk to you. Thank you.
Catriona Jackson:
Good to see you again, Laura.
ENDS
