National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce Technical Paper

Geoscience
Domestic undergraduate completions in geoscience are expected to increase from 2009 to
2011 and then decrease between 2011 and 2014. Between 2009 and 2014 completions are
expected to fall by 19 per cent. For more detailed analysis of completions see Appendix IV.
4.3.4 Employment destinations for higher education graduates
Graduate Careers Australia found that 90.6 per cent of the mining engineering graduates who
completed their qualifications at the end of 2008 were working in a mining-related occupation
four months later. For geology graduates, 81.4 per cent were working in occupations directly
related to their degrees.
Table 20 provides data on graduates working in a field related to their training.
Table 20: Proportion of graduates working in areas related to training, by field of study, 2008
Broad field of education
Proportion of bachelor degree graduates
working in areas related to training (%)
Chemical engineering 90.6
Civil engineering 85.7
Electrical engineering 85.2
Electronic/computer engineering 80.6
Mechanical engineering 84.9
Mining engineering 90.6
Other engineering 81.8
Geology 81.4
Chemistry 83.9
Physics 66.1
Source: Graduate Careers Australia 2009
However, the Taskforce’s analysis of census data indicates many mining professionals are
employed in other industries, which suggests many do not remain in mining. In 2006, only
55 per cent of those qualified as mining engineers were working in mining, while 8 per
cent were working in professional, scientific and technical services in areas, such as scientific
research and engineering. Only around 30 per cent of geologists and geophysicists were
working in mining. Around 21 per cent of geologists and 27 per cent of geophysicists were
working in professional, scientific and technical services. See Table 21.
42 | National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce: Technical Paper