scoping our future - ANET - Australian National Engineering Taskforce

More documents

Recommendations

Info

16 | Scoping Our Future Addressing Australia’s Engineering Skills ShortageQualityEngineers were concerned that overallcapacity in their organisation wasaffected negatively by key engineeringshortages. One public sector engineerindicated that a shortfall of engineersmeant that non-engineering employeeswere undertaking the complianceassessment roles that have traditionallybeen the purview of engineers:Not enough personnel in auditing,quality and compliance with engineeringand/or technical skills. Non-technicalpeople are assessing engineeringmanagement systems for complianceand not properly comprehendingtechnical aspects and risks. (Age: 28,industry: Electricity, Gas and Water)Another public sector engineer identifiedthat key personnel shortfalls werecosting his organisation money andaffecting the quality of communityinfrastructure delivery:Technical expertise... the organisationis no longer an informed purchaser. Myemployer doesn’t value my technicalskills and capabilities and is now anuninformed purchaser of engineeringgoods and services. This results inpoor quality roads and bridges... whichthen impacts on road safety. (Age 49;industry: Roads)Skills transitionA fundamental preoccupation ofengineers was the ageing of theirworkplaces and the fact that keypersonnel would be imminently retiringwithout the opportunity to pass onaccumulated expertise and knowledge.The shortfall of graduates and a lack ofstructured traineeships were highlightedas key concerns. One engineer in thepublic sector expressed typical concerns:The most highly skilled engineers in ourorganisation are all now in their 50s andwill exit the workforce in the next 5 to15 years. These are not being replaceddue to a shortage of engineers in themarket. (Age 58; industry: Electricity,Gas and Water Supply)Another engineer noted that olderengineers were becoming morespecialised as particular tasks devolvedon the most experienced members ofthe organisation; however, a lack ofworkforce and workplace planning meantthat with the loss of these personnel,specialist capacities of the organisationwould be wiped out:The few remaining knowledgeableand skilled engineers have to takeon increasing responsibilities oftenresulting in single points of knowledge.No one to pass knowledge to as nosuccession planning exists. Severe lossof corporate knowledge is imminentas many engineers will retire in next 5years. (Age 56; industry: Electricity, Gasand Water Supply)One engineer told of the effects ofthis specialisation on their own worksatisfaction and career prospects:Having been pigeon-holed as a technicalspecialist for years, I get little exposureto the more generalist skills which theorganisation favours when looking to fillsenior positions. Also, it’s difficult to finda similarly experienced specialist in thisfield and, of course, the organisationwont consider parallel paths to retain/attract quality staff. So we get aprocession of inexperienced, overseasqualified engineers who are looking toget a foot in the door, then they move on.This is a temporary, band-aid solution tothe skills shortage. (Age 52; GovernmentAdministration and Defence)Engineers often raised the idea thata lack of formalised traineeships atindividual workplaces was having broadercapacity effects, and raised the idea thata workforce intervention was needed toensure that graduates were able to fullyrealise their potential as engineers:My experience is that most graduatesneed a significant amount of supportbeyond their undergraduate trainingin order to become world-standardengineers. The amount of supportrequired is very difficult to providewith on-the-job training alone and Ibelieve that some formalised systemto address this shortfall is necessaryto arrest the degradation of skills in theworkplace. (Age 31; industry: Water andEnvironment)As the survey reveals, engineers areplaced under enormous pressure atthe workplace to continue deliveringquality infrastructure with a skeletonstaff. A 2008 survey of employers in theconsulting engineering sector asked
Scoping Our Future Addressing Australia’s Engineering Skills Shortage | 17about the impact of skills shortages onthe respondent firm in the previous twoyears; 100% of larger firms and 94% ofmedium sized firms (which employ agreater number of engineers than smallerfirms) answered that the skills shortagehad increased pressure on existing staff. 37In a recent APESMA member survey atRail Corp in NSW, 65% of respondentsanswered that there were unfilledvacancies in their area and 49% that theywere working extra hours as a result ofskill shortages. 38Skills Australia has identified whatengineers and employers already know– that the skills crisis will not abatewithout strategic intervention to developthe engineering workforce to meetcapacity demands. Over the past threedecades there has been a fundamentalrearticulation of the engineeringprofession and its development throughthe public and private sector and theuniversity sector, resulting in an overallloss of capacity and degradation ofprofessional structures. Unchecked,skills shortages will continue to affectworkplace capacity, workplace conditionsand professional structures, and will affectthe ability of Government and its publicservice to deliver key infrastructure.37 Consult Australia, (2008) Australia ACEA SkillsSurvey 2008, Issue 3.38 Unpublished APESMA Member Survey.
Page 3 and 4: Scoping Our Future Addressing Austr
Page 17: Scoping Our Future Addressing Austr
Page 36: www.anet.org.au

scoping our future - ANET - Australian National Engineering Taskforce

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?