6 | Scoping Our Future Addressing Australia’s <strong>Engineering</strong> Skills ShortageFurthermore, women make up only16% of commencing undergraduatestudents in engineering, and 9.5%of those with tertiary qualifications inengineering working in engineering orrelated occupations. 7 This figure remainsunacceptably low. While women’sinvolvement in engineering has increasedsomewhat over the past three decades,beginning from an extraordinarily lowbase, female participation remains verylow compared to overall female workforceparticipation rates, with cultural issuesand issues of workplace flexibility causingan exodus of women from the profession.In APESMA’s 2009-10 Women in theProfessions survey, 78% of respondentsindicated that they worked in a maledominatedindustry. Of engineeringrespondents, three quarters felt thatworking part-time in their current jobhas had or would have detrimentalimpacts on their career. And disturbingly,around 70% of engineering respondentsthought that taking maternity leave wouldbe detrimental to their career. Mostrespondents noted a lack of access tosenior roles for women, and issues withwork-life balance. 8 This is an issue ofworkplace culture that requires urgentattention. Attracting and retaining womenstudents and engineers is an issue ofboth equity and practical supply. In atight lab<strong>our</strong> market, industry must investin best-practice workplace practices toensure that all available s<strong>our</strong>ces of skilledlab<strong>our</strong> are utilised.Engineers themselves have identifiedwidespread impacts of capacity shortageson costs, quality and professionalism.<strong>ANET</strong>’s December 2009 survey of morethan 2000 engineering professionalsshowed that 60% of respondentsidentified an engineering skills shortagein their work section. 54% of respondentsidentified a loss of capability in theirworkplace, which was identified byrespondents as impacting on their abilityto undertake core work. 9Combined with systemic workforceretention issues, an ageing professionalengineering workforce and a changedrole for the public sector in providinggeneralist skills and training for youngengineers, decreased capacity hasmeant that engineers are pressed harderand have seen their roles grow morenarrow. Over time, overall professionalcapacity is correspondingly degraded.One engineer neatly summed up theproblem at their workplace:The few remaining knowledgeableand skilled engineers have to takeon increasing responsibilities oftenresulting in single points of knowledge.There is no one to pass knowledgeto as no succession planning exists.Severe loss of corporate knowledge isimminent as many engineers will retirein the next 5 years.The engineering profession is integrallyinvolved in the growth and developmentof the <strong>Australian</strong> economy, drivinginfrastructure design, constructionand maintenance. As we move intothe second decade of the 21 st century,Australia faces a certainty that withoutaction on this issue, <strong>our</strong> capacity to buildand maintain vital community and industryinfrastructure will be affected. Over thenext two decades, with Governmentpolicy settings supporting the res<strong>our</strong>cesboom driving Australia’s strengthenedeconomic growth, skills shortages inengineering will continue to affect thegrowth of the <strong>Australian</strong> economy as theskills drain from the res<strong>our</strong>ces sectoradds to the already apparent constraintson skills and capacity.Australia also faces the challengeof climate change, which will requiresignificant adaptation of existinginfrastructure and systems and thedevelopment of new technologiesto address a new set of communityissues. <strong>Engineering</strong>, design andproblem solving skills are a base levelcommunity capacity required to addressthese challenges. However, currentlyplanning for the increased demand for‘green’ workers is limited. Discussion of7 Cited in Engineers Australia (2008) The<strong>Engineering</strong> Profession: A Statistical OverviewFifth Edition.8 APESMA (2010) 2009-10 Women in theProfessions: The State of Play Survey Report,APESMA, September.9 <strong>Australian</strong> <strong>National</strong> <strong>Engineering</strong> <strong>Taskforce</strong> (2010)<strong>ANET</strong> Engineers Survey.
Scoping Our Future Addressing Australia’s <strong>Engineering</strong> Skills Shortage | 7the role of engineers in the preventionand mitigation of climate change andin the “green” economy more broadlyrequires a new focus on education andthe potential up-skilling of the existingworkforce. A workforce developmentplan for engineering is required toensure that new and emerging areas ofcommunity infrastructure are properlyscoped and planned, ensuring thatAustralia has the requisite national skillscapacity to face the coming challenge ofclimate change adaptation.Systemic interventions into the educationsystem and graduate supply, addressingrecruitment and retention of womenand skills transfer issues in an ageingworkforce, and investing in betterarticulation between industry needs andsupply infrastructure are vital policy areasthat must be addressed to ensure that<strong>our</strong> national skills and innovative capacityis enhanced, to support growth anddevelopment, and to address the comingchallenges of climate change adaptation.<strong>ANET</strong> is working with Government andindustry to develop sustainable solutionsto the capacity crisis. <strong>ANET</strong>’s first projectis to model capacity and skills shortagesin two key community infrastructuresectors, roads and rail. The researchwork on these two industries will alsoproduce a model to examine other keyindustries, as part of <strong>ANET</strong>’s plan todevelop a national picture of engineeringskills shortages to support evidencebasedpolicy development and improvedcapacity in industry, workplaces and inthe education sector.Both of these industries are currentlysuffering key skills shortages inengineering. The Australasian RailwayAssociation has estimated that demandfor rail engineers in Australia outstrippedcurrent employment by around 40%. 10According to projections from BISShrapnel, around $2.7 billion worthof potential road construction andmaintenance work will be foregonebetween 2012-14 if lab<strong>our</strong> supply is notincreased to meet demand. 11<strong>ANET</strong>’s second project investigatescurrent pathways between differentstages of engineering education andthe effectiveness of existing modelsto ameliorate the skills blockage. It willprovide an overview and participativeevaluation of the current articulationmodels between VET and HigherEducation providers. <strong>ANET</strong>, with the criticalinput of education providers, will examinethe effectiveness and usefulness of currentmodels through stakeholder evaluation,identifying best practice. Both of theseresearch projects have been fundedthrough the Commonwealth Departmentof Education, Employment and WorkplaceRelations and will report in 2011.10 Australasian Railway Association (2008) A RailRevolution: Future Capability Identification andSkills Development for the Australasian RailIndustry.11 BIS Shrapnel (2006) Australia and NewZealand Roads Capability Analysis, 2006-2016Austroads Research Report.
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