Australia faces engineering skills shortage

Australia, 4th August: Australia is likely to face severe shortage of engineering skills in the country and this will have a poor impact on the growth and development of Australian economy.

This has been revealed by a recent survey undertaken by Consult Australia.

Named ‘The Engineering Skills Survey’, the survey has sent clear warning signals to the nation stating that infrastructure estimated around $400 billion to be delivered by the country over the next decade is likely to be delayed to due shortage of workers for engineering jobs in Australia.

There is a shortage of engineering skills in the consulting industry as revealed by the survey findings, stated Megan Motto, CEO of Consult Australia.

Hence, the industry as well as the government needs to work together to chalk out a possible solution for this. As per the survey findings, nearly seventy five percent (three-quarters) of the firms have reported severe shortage of engineering workers along with stagnation in the growth of graduates in the last 10 years time. This has resulted in poor supply of workers for filling engineering jobs in Australia, added Ms. Motto.

It has emerged that shortage of engineering workers is a systemic issue. The shortage of engineering skills is back and is as strong as it was during the global economic slowdown, Ms. Motto maintained.

Nearly two thirds of the firms participating in the survey stated that civil engineering happens to be most badly affected by the looming skills shortage in the engineering field in Australia. And this is especially alarming in the wake of huge spending by State and Federal governments in the nation.

Apart from acute shortage of civil engineers in Australia, another engineering discipline affected badly by the skills shortage happens to be environmental engineering. According to one-third of firms in the survey, Australia is also facing short supply of environmental engineers.

And this is a cause of serious concern for the climate change, energy efficiency and sustainability which happens to be top priority for the Australian government, Ms. Motto stated.

It may be noted that several eminent industrialists had warned that Australia must relax Australian visa norms if it wants to avoid economic stagnation.