Recording date: Tuesday 23 August 2022
E&EO
Stephen Cenatiempo:
Universities are outlining their proposals to address the nation’s skills shortage, including the future needs of regional and rural Australia. Catriona Jackson is Universities Australia’s Chief Executive, and she joins us on the line now. Catriona, good morning.
Catriona Jackson:
G’day, Steve.
Stephen Cenatiempo:
This is, well, I mean, it’s a complex problem. And we’re now looking beyond the skills shortage to acknowledge that we don’t necessarily need high skilled people in every job, the kind of people that you would provide. We also need lower skilled workers as well. But let’s talk about the 500 odd thousand new jobs that are, well, hopefully going to be created over the next 500 years. Sorry. Over the next five years, not 500 years. How do we fill those? And what sort of strategies are universities putting in place?
Catriona Jackson:
Look, universities are really central to this. As you said, Steve, it’s not all high skill jobs. It’s low skill and medium skill jobs as well. Universities are fundamental to making sure we’ve got a really good ready supply of those people in areas that we can see every day with massive shortages – like IT, health, and teaching. We are all noticing how many pupil free days there are and how complex this is. The other killer thing here is that we’re in a really serious international competition for both skilled and unskilled labour at the moment. It isn’t just Australia. All around the world people are looking for skilled workers. We really need to make sure we up our game and educate people here, but also attract a few more of those terrifically talented international students and get a few more of them using the education they’ve got in Australia staying here longer.
Stephen Cenatiempo:
So, how do we do that?
Catriona Jackson:
Look, there are ways of smoothing the visa process that just makes it slightly more likely they’ll stay on. Only 16 per cent of international students stay in Australia and use their Australian education in Australia. If we smooth those visa processes, we’ll get a few more of them staying on. They’ll work in our hospitals, they’ll be our top research scientists, they’ll work in IT, they’ll work in our schools – they’ll really help. We’ve always imported skilled labour into this country, it’s part of the reason we’re such a fantastically rich, multicultural society.
Just a little bit more – upping that 16 per cent by a little bit – would really make a difference. But it’s fundamentally important that we are educating Australians in Australia really well. We know that enormous number of jobs, one million jobs that will be created really quite soon, not in 500 years, but in the next couple of years, half of them will need a university degree. So we’ve got to make sure we’re fit for purpose and we’ve got those degrees to offer kids who really deserve to have the best chance and take their place as skilled workers.
Stephen Cenatiempo:
Catriona, it sounds easy, but I’m sure government will complicate it. I appreciate your time this morning.
Catriona Jackson:
Cheers.
