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Engineering workforce study

Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency 1


June 2014



ISBN: 978-1-925092-37-0 (Online)

Licensed from the Commonwealth of Australia under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.

The Commonwealth of Australia does not necessarily endorse the content of this publication.

Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Department of Industry, GPO Box 9839, Canberra, ACT, 2601.

Disclaimer: The material contained in this report has been developed by the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency. The agency does not guarantee or accept any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information disclosed.

The report can be accessed at www.awpa.gov.au.



Table of Contents List of Figures.................................................................................................................................................................. 5 List of Tables ................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................................. 7 Recommendations ....................................................................................................................................................... 11

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Scope of the report ...................................................................................................................................................... 14 Methodology ................................................................................................................................................................ 15 Literature review—key themes .................................................................................................................................... 16 What is engineering? .................................................................................................................................................... 18 Structure of the report ................................................................................................................................................. 19

Part One: Profiling engineering—economic impact, key trends and workforce profile ................................................. 20 Chapter One: Engineers in Australia ............................................................................................................................ 21

1.1 What does an engineer do? ............................................................................................................................... 21 1.2 National outlook for engineer-related industries .............................................................................................. 22 1.3 Impact of engineering across the economy ....................................................................................................... 27 1.4 The impact of globalisation on the competitiveness of Australian engineering businesses ............................. 28 1.5 International competition for engineering skills ................................................................................................ 30

Chapter Two: Skills demand and supply ....................................................................................................................... 32 2.1 Snapshot of the labour market .......................................................................................................................... 32 2.2 Demand for engineering skills ............................................................................................................................ 35 2.3 Supply of engineering skills ................................................................................................................................ 38 2.4 Existing skills shortages in engineering .............................................................................................................. 48 2.5 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................... 48

Part Two: ........................................................................................................................................................................... 50 Development, attraction, retention and utilisation of engineering skills ......................................................................... 50

Chapter Three: Issues affecting the skills pipeline into engineering ............................................................................ 51 3.1 Progressing the recommendations of this report .............................................................................................. 51 3.2 Intermittency ..................................................................................................................................................... 52 3.3 Registration of engineers ................................................................................................................................... 57 3.4 Perceptions of engineering and status of engineering careers ......................................................................... 58 3.5 The role of the school system in the skills pipeline into engineering ................................................................ 60 3.6 Developing effective careers advice to attract students into engineering careers ........................................... 62 3.7 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................... 68

Chapter Four: Ensuring the supply of high-quality engineering skills from tertiary education and skilled migration . 69 4.1 Engineering skills needs of the future ................................................................................................................ 70 4.2 Improving attraction to and retention in VET engineering-related qualifications ............................................. 73 4.3 Perceptions and experiences of higher education engineering graduates ........................................................ 82 4.4 Labour market outcomes for skilled migrants ................................................................................................... 95

Chapter Five: Increasing the engagement of women in engineering ........................................................................ 104 5.1 Existing strategies to improve the participation of women ............................................................................. 106 5.2 Continuing barriers to women’s participation in the engineering workforce ................................................. 113 5.3 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................ 119

Chapter Six: Career pathways for mature-aged workers and improving the participation of Indigenous Australians .................................................................................................................................................................................... 120

6.1 Potential career pathways for technical and management roles in the engineering workforce..................... 122 6.2 Participation of Indigenous Australians in the engineering workforce ............................................................ 126 6.3 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................ 131

Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................................... 132 Appendices ..................................................................................................................................................................... 133

Appendix A—Engineering occupations on the Specialised Occupations List ............................................................. 134 Appendix B—Stakeholders ......................................................................................................................................... 135 Appendix C—Unemployment rates for Engineers ..................................................................................................... 136 Appendix D—Gender profile ...................................................................................................................................... 138 Appendix E – Median weekly full-time earnings ........................................................................................................ 140

Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 142



List of Figures

Figure 1: Industry distribution of engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2013 .................................................................................................................................................................................. 22 Figure 2: Example of a global value chain—manufacturing and assembly of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner .......................... 29 Figure 3: Employment levels for engineering professions and engineering-related trades, 2008–13 ............................. 32 Figure 4: Employment levels for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades, 2008 and 2013 ................ 34 Figure 5: Domestic and overseas Bachelor and higher level award course commencements for Engineering and Related Technologies, 2006–12 ..................................................................................................................................................... 40 Figure 6: Domestic and overseas Bachelor and higher level award course completions by course specialisation for Engineering and Related Technologies, 2006–12 ............................................................................................................. 40 Figure 7: Certificate III/IV commencements and completions for engineering-related trades, 2006–12 ....................... 41 Figure 8: Diploma/Advanced Diploma commencements and completions for engineering-related trades, 2006–12 .... 42 Figure 9: Internet Vacancy Index for engineering professionals (March 2006 = 100) ...................................................... 54 Figure 10: Internet Vacancy Index for engineering-related trades (March 2006=100) .................................................... 55 Figure 11: Overseas skilled migration for engineering professions, 2006–07 to 2012–13 ............................................... 96 Figure 12: Overseas skilled migration for engineering-related trades, 2006–07 to 2012–13 .......................................... 97 Figure 13: Female employment and employment growth in engineering occupations, 1993–13 ................................. 104 Figure 14: Gender profile for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades, 2013, four-quarter average ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 105 Figure 15: Age profile for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2011 . 120 Figure 16: Percentage of Indigenous workers in engineering occupations at 2011 ....................................................... 126 Figure 17: Certificate III/IV commencements and completions by Indigenous status for engineering-related trades, 2006–12 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 127 Figure 18: Unemployment rates for engineering professionals, 2006–13 ..................................................................... 136 Figure 19: Unemployment rates for Engineering-related trades, 2006–13 ................................................................... 137 Figure 20: Domestic and overseas Bachelor award course completions by field of study for Engineering and Related Technologies, 2006–12 ................................................................................................................................................... 139



List of Tables

Table 1: Gross Value Added (GVA) and contribution to total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for selected industries, (Chain Volume Measures), 2013....................................................................................................................................... 27 Table 2: Employment projections for engineering-related occupations, February 2014 to February 2019, four-quarter average ............................................................................................................................................................................. 36 Table 3: Annual average growth for net replacement rate, projected net replacement and projected job openings, 2013–19 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 38 Table 4: Commencements and completions at the Certificate II level—Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (ANZSCO 3231) .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 42 Table 5: Apprentices Certificate III/IV commencements for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2006–12 ................................................................................................................................... 44 Table 6: Apprentices Certificate III/IV completions for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2006–12 ................................................................................................................................... 45 Table 7: Apprentices Diploma/Advanced Diploma commencements for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2006–12 ........................................................................................................... 46 Table 8: Apprentices Diploma/Advanced Diploma completions for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2006–12 ........................................................................................................................ 47 Table 9: Skills shortages in engineering professional and engineering-related trade occupations, 2012–13 .................. 49 Table 10: Engineering qualifications and occupation definitions ..................................................................................... 78 Table 11: Labour force status for persons who have studied Engineering and Related Technologies at Bachelor degree level or above ................................................................................................................................................................... 91 Table 12: Labour force status for persons who have studied Engineering and Related Technologies at Certificate III and IV level and Diploma* level............................................................................................................................................... 92 Table 13: Occupational outcomes by Field of Education, 2011 Census of population and housing ................................. 93 Table 14: Subclass 457 visas granted by engineering-related occupations, 2012–13 ...................................................... 98 Table 15: Outcomes of migrants nominating ‘ANZSCO 233 Engineering Professionals’ as their occupations, based on the Continuous Survey of Australian Migrants 2009–11 .................................................................................................. 99 Table 16: Percentage of Indigenous to non-Indigenous Certificate III / IV commencements and completions for engineering-related trades ............................................................................................................................................. 127 Table 17: Engineering occupations on the Specialised Occupations List........................................................................ 134 Table 18: Gender percentage breakdown for engineering professionals and engineering-related trade occupations in 2013 ................................................................................................................................................................................ 138 Table 19: Median weekly full-time earnings (before tax) for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2007–12 ................................................................................................................................. 141



Overview

Engineering-related work powers many of the key industries on which Australia’s current and future prosperity relies. The quality and supply of engineering skills are vital to boost the global competitiveness of Australian industries such as Mining, Construction, Manufacturing and a range of sub-sectors of the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services industries. In 2013, Mining contributed $154.5 billion, Construction contributed $116.2 billion, Manufacturing contributed $102.8 billion, and Professional, Scientific and Technical Services added $100.1 billion to the Australian economy.1

The Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency’s (AWPA) Engineering workforce study provides a snapshot of the labour market for engineering skills, and the global and domestic context of engineering-related industries, and examines how improving the skills pipeline from education into engineering can help Australia meet the engineering skills demands of the future. It specifically examines how the supply of engineering skills can be boosted by improving the participation of women and mature-aged engineering workers.

Engineering work has evolved into a broad spectrum of roles that includes engineering trades workers, technicians and technologists as well as professional engineers. When asked to define a ‘good’ professional engineer, some highlight attributes such as skills to define and solve problems elegantly and cost-effectively, the ability to design innovation and work well with others. Most stakeholders report there is little understanding of the contemporary work of professional engineers in the general community. Professional engineers provide specialist knowledge to enterprises and enable them to ‘achieve the high levels of productivity that underpin our standard of living’.2 Professional engineers and engineering technologists, technicians and trades workers are expected to have a depth of specialist knowledge and skills as well as the ability to work in a cross-disciplinary way across diverse knowledge areas. The lack of understanding of the nature and the value of the range of engineering work has an impact on the status of, and perceptions about, engineering careers in Australia.

The challenges faced by the engineering workforce—such as those related to adequate supply of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills, participation and globalisation of the labour market—are shared by other workforces. Leadership from Australian enterprises is vital to meeting these challenges and paving the way for education providers and government to facilitate and support industry-led strategies. There are already a number of industry-led initiatives to meet some of these challenges across various sectors, and engineering will benefit from the outcomes.

In recent times, Australia has faced a critical shortage of engineering and engineering-related skills which had adverse consequences for the boom period in the resources sector by delaying projects and increasing project costs. Australia ranked 34 out of 148 countries in relation to ‘availability of scientists and engineers’

1 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2014, Australian national accounts: national income, expenditure and product, December quarter 2013, cat.no. 5206.0, Table 6, original data. Note that it is gross value-added (GVA) in chain volume measures and GVA figures for the 2013 calendar year have been calculated by summing up GVA figures (original terms) for the March, June, September and December quarters in 2013. 2 Feedback from Trevelyan J provided during AWPA’s consultations for this report.



to support technological innovation, which is one of the key pillars of the 2013 Global Competitiveness Index.3 However, demand has changed recently, and there is agreement that Australia does not currently face general shortages in engineering skills, although a small number of occupations such as Mining and Petroleum Engineers, Sheetmetal Trades Workers and Metal Machinists and Fitters continue to experience recruitment difficulties.4

Stakeholders note that innovations addressing the engineering skills needs of Australian industries are often driven by periods of acute shortages, such as the shortage of power engineers due to the roll-out of power infrastructure or the increased demand for engineering skills due to the mining boom. There is general consensus that while there are no current skills crises in engineering, there are continuing challenges in relation to a range of issues, including industry restructuring (as a consequence of the intermittency of engineering work and the globalisation of engineering skills), the engineering skills needs of the future and the domestic skills pipeline into engineering. It is generally agreed that it is imperative that these challenges are addressed before the cycle for engineering skills turns, in order to prevent the acute skills shortages of the recent past and ensure the global competitiveness of Australia’s engineering-related industries.

The demand for some engineering skills is cyclical and intermittent due to the ‘lumpy nature of workflow’ in sub-sectors such as Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction. Intermittency has a number of consequences including limitations in the capacity of enterprises to offer entry-level jobs that require training support and attrition of experienced engineers during times of downturn. Intermittency also creates peak periods of demand for engineering skills that coincide with the roll-out of large projects in sectors such as Mining and Construction. While it is important to boost the domestic supply of engineering skills, it is neither feasible nor practicable to plan for domestic supply to meet intermittent periods of peak demand. These temporary shortfalls are usually met by temporary skilled migration programs—such as the Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457)—which provides Australian industry with the specialised skills it requires during periods of peak activity. A stronger advanced Manufacturing sector (e.g. in advanced biomedical and renewable energy products and systems) would also be less susceptible to the infrastructure cycles, and would underpin technologically-driven economic improvements. We note also that government has committed significant future investment in defence systems procurement that will require a ramp-up of the engineering workforce.5

Overall, employment levels for engineering professionals since 2008 has increased by 13.5 per cent, from 310,200 to 352,100 workers between 2008 and 2013. However, employment levels for engineering trades and technicians only grew by 2.4 per cent (or 6,000) people in 2008–13.6 In 2013, the unemployment level for engineering professionals was marginally above the benchmark for all Professionals (2.5 per cent and 2 per cent respectively) while the unemployment level for engineering trades and technicians was below the

3 World Economic Forum, 2013, The global competitiveness report 2013–2014, weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalCompetitivenessReport_2013-14.pdf, accessed 26 May 2014, p. 111. 4 Department of Employment, 2013, Survey of employers who have recently advertised. 5 This is largely in the form of Canberra-Class Amphibious Assault Ships, with major construction of the hull carried out in Spain and the remainder by BAE Systems in Williamstown shipyard in Victoria and some modules constructed at a number of other sites around Australia. See Royal Australian Navy, 2014, Amphibious Assault Ship (LHD), gov.au/fleet/ships-boats-craft/lhd, accessed 16 June 2014. 6 ABS, 2013, Labour force survey, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003, four-quarter average.



benchmark for all Trades and Technicians (2.6 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively).7 These figures, combined with available data on vacancies, indicate a nuanced picture of industry demand for engineering skills in Australia. Industry preference is for specific sets of skills for professional engineers including sector experience, collaboration and communication skills. The intermittency of demand poses a challenge to enterprises in creating adaptability and flexibility across job designs, enterprise structures and training.

On the supply side, the domestic higher education completions (by course specialisation) of Bachelor degree engineering graduates increased by about 7 per cent from 2006–12 while completions for overseas engineering graduates grew by 46 per cent for the same period.8 The persistent low participation of women in engineering-related courses constrains a large pool of potential supply of engineering graduates. The lack of uptake of STEM-related studies at school levels, particularly among girls, has been acknowledged as a key factor in limiting the skills pipeline into engineering degrees. The Australian Government has initiated a number of strategies to address this issue including several led by the Office of the Chief Scientist. A wide range of industry initiatives have also targeted this group, some of which are highlighted in the case studies included in the report.

The partnership between industry and education providers is vital to ensuring that engineering degrees and other qualifications remain relevant, meet the current information provision preferences of students and produce work-ready graduates. Work-integrated learning (WIL) programs (i.e. education and training courses that include a work-related component) are central to this partnership; however, we find that they are not co-ordinated effectively and largely rely on individual students to find placements. A more integrated approach is required to provide good quality work experience for university students. Engineering research is also vitally important to support Australia’s capacity for innovation and competitiveness and a stronger relationship between industry and education providers can facilitate knowledge exchange between engineering practice and research. Industry’s need for and valuing of engineering paraprofessionals and engineering technologists remains unclear. Paraprofessional and engineering technologist occupations can potentially offset some of the skills issues related to engineering professionals by supplying specific practice-based technical skills.

Engineering, like many other occupations, is increasingly part of a globalised labour market. The rapidly developing economies in our region, such as India and China, produce large numbers of engineering graduates, many of whom will offer their skills in the global engineering labour market. In 2013 it was estimated that India produced around 1.5 million graduate engineers who faced a shrinking domestic market for their skills.9 India accounts for the largest single source of skilled migrant engineers migrating to Australia with around 20 per cent of skilled migrants born in India.10 Industry also sources in-demand skills through skilled migrant places including China and countries in North Africa and Middle East. While skilled migrant professional engineers and others in engineering occupations are vital to meet the specialised

7 Department of Employment and Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency (AWPA) calculations based on ABS, 2013, Labour force survey, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003, four-quarter average to November 2013. 8 Department of Education, 2012, Higher education statistics, by course specialisation, custom request. 9 Chaturvedi A and Sachitanand R, 2013, ‘A million engineers in India struggling to get placed in an extremely challenging market’, The Economic Times, economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-0618/news/40049243_1_engineers-iit-bombay-batch-size, viewed 26 May 2014. 10 ABS, 2011, Australian census and migrants integrated dataset.



needs of industry, there are reports of under employment and unemployment, especially among those on Skilled Independent Visas. Existing initiatives to provide orientation pathways for these engineering workers need to be strengthened and targeted to provide training for skills to navigate the Australian recruitment market and workplace culture.

A persistent issue related to skills supply is the low participation of women in engineering. In 2013 women constituted only 10.4 per cent of engineering managers and professionals and 1.7 per cent of engineering technicians and trades workers, compared to 46.6 per cent and 14.2 per cent for all managers and professionals and all trades workers and technicians respectively.11 This situation is shared by many western economies and has continued despite initiatives by industry and education providers to develop and implement targeted programs to improve women’s engagement in engineering. Several of these initiatives at both enterprise level and within ‘women in engineering’ programs at universities are featured in this report. Recent research has attributed the persistence of the problem to gendered workplaces and roles in engineering that remain unchanged in the design of current intervention and support programs. A resolution of this issue will provide a significant pool of engineering skills to power Australia’s engineering skills demands of the future.

Engineering workplaces also face challenges in retaining their mature-aged engineering workers. In 2011, mature-aged engineers represented 36.1 per cent of engineering professionals and 36.7 per cent of engineering trades compared to 39.9 per cent for all occupations.12 Mature-aged engineering workers who wish to retain their technical focus tend to have limited or no career pathways within engineering firms as career advancement is usually through management rather than technical pathways. The creation of structured positions at senior levels for technical roles can create technical career pathways for experienced engineers. In addition, the mentoring capacities of this cohort are either under-utilised by engineering firms or utilised in informal rather than formal structures. Mentoring positions benefit both the mature-aged engineering workers and the firm—especially in supporting and training for entry-level positions.

Enterprises have responded to these workforce challenges with a range of strategies, including workplace flexibility and internal support and mentoring programs, many of which are featured in this report. These strategies need to be mainstreamed rather than being framed as marginal measures for specific cohorts. Industry leaders have called for policies that are non-discriminatory in design, target groups and implementation. Supporting the work preferences of the emerging engineering workforce and meeting the demands of project-based work patterns will be a challenge for industry; however, meeting this imperative is key to making engineering workplaces attractive to a diversity of workers and engineering careers inspiring for young Australians.

Ultimately, Australia’s competitiveness as a producer of high level and advanced engineering products and skills in the region and globally will be shaped by the ability of Australia’s enterprises, educators and engineers to anticipate and effectively meet the engineering skills demands of the future.

11 ABS, 2013, Labour force survey, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003, four quarter average. 12 ABS, 2011, Census of population and housing.



Recommendations Progressing the recommendations of this report

Recommendation 1

a) That a collaborative engineering working group of stakeholders be convened by the Minister for Industry to take forward the recommendations of AWPA’s Engineering workforce study (with the exception of Recommendation 7a).

b) That the Australian Government Department of Industry provide facilitation support including funding and/or secretariat provision to this working group to take the recommendations forward.

Developing effective promotional vehicles for engineering careers

Recommendation 2

That members of the engineering working group work with the Office of the Chief Scientist in its ongoing engagement with industry to promote science, technology, maths and engineering-related careers and studies at school levels.

Improving attraction to and retention in vocational education and training engineering-related qualifications

Recommendation 3

That vocational education and training providers enhance career promotion pathways into engineering trades and technical occupations by targeting school counsellors, students and parents to provide current information about pathways into engineering trades and technical qualifications and providing opportunities for students to get hands-on experience of engineering trades.

Role of paraprofessional engineers and engineering technologists

Recommendation 4

That education providers work with industry to determine the demand for, and communicate the value of, engineering paraprofessional, engineering associate and engineering technologist occupations to industry.



Perceptions and experiences of higher education engineering graduates

Recommendation 5

That the relevance of engineering degrees is enhanced by industry and universities:

a) continuing to build on existing collaborative initiatives to forge exchange opportunities between engineering academics and practising engineers that facilitate knowledge exchange between engineering research and current engineering practice; and

b) collaborating to include in the engineering curricula training for skills in demand and engineering skills of the future such as collaboration skills, inter-disciplinary capabilities and communication skills to increase the work-readiness of engineering graduates.

Work-integrated and industry-led learning in engineering degrees

Recommendation 6

That industry and universities build on the findings of the Australian Council of Engineering Deans’ pilot project on work-integrated learning and use these programs to create pathways into sustainable employment for graduates

Labour market outcomes for skilled migrants

Recommendation 7

a) That the Australian Government maintain priority of employer sponsored migration applicants. b) That skilled migrant engineers are provided with expanded and structured orientation programs that

include information about Australian recruitment practices and workplace culture and that these programs undertake ongoing evaluation to measure outcomes and enable continuous improvement.

Workplace culture and women in engineering

Recommendation 8

That the attraction of women to engineering study and careers and the retention of women in engineering occupations are enhanced by industry:

a) maintaining and expanding workplace programs to support women engineers by targeting gendered workplace cultures and roles and by mainstreaming workplace flexibility measures to include both men and women; and

b) working with education providers to increase and strengthen ‘women in engineering’ programs by providing access to role models of women engineers and other means of mentoring female students in engineering.



Potential career pathways for technical and management roles in the engineering workforce

Recommendation 9

That the retention of mature-aged workers in engineering is improved by industry:

a) creating senior technical roles and structured mentoring positions to provide technical career pathways for mature-aged engineers and support for entry-level engineers; and

b) collaborating with education providers to develop a grants program for engineering bridging courses (including online delivery) for industry to allow mature-aged engineers re-entry into the workforce.



Introduction

Scope of the report As engineering skills are used in a number of sectors, the capacity of industry and the training sector to meet demand for engineering-related skills has wide reaching implications for the national economy. This challenge has been particularly noticeable in recent years, with Australia experiencing a critical shortage of engineers due to demand related largely to the investment and construction phase of the resources boom.

In this context, this study examines critical issues impacting on the engineering skills pipeline and considers the likely future demand for engineer-related skills in Australia. It aims to provide information to industry and the education and training sector to deliver these skills and provide examples of best practice workforce development initiatives.

The report draws on the considerable research that has been recently completed on the engineering workforce. It does not seek to duplicate existing studies; rather it attempts to identify where it can add value to the existing information and suggestions.

The report also aims to complement the 2011 Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee Inquiry into the shortage of engineering and related employment skills which examined the link between the demand for infrastructure delivery and the shortage of appropriate engineering and related employment skills in Australia. The committee considered options for a number of issues, including addressing the skills shortage for engineers and related trades, strategies to develop and retain engineering talent in the private and public sectors through industry training and development, and incentives linked to the procurement process to encourage the private sector to undertake skills development. The committee’s final report was released in July 2012.13 It contained the following three recommendations that are relevant to AWPA14:

Recommendation 3—The committee recommends that the government requests the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency, or a similar body, to investigate the reason why attrition rates for Vocational Education and Training courses in engineering trades are so high. Based on the findings of this study, the committee recommends that the government work with Vocational Education and Training providers and the states and territories to improve completion rates.

Recommendation 10—The committee recommends that the government work with the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency and employers to develop targeted policies that encourage women to remain in, or return to, the engineering workforce.

Recommendation 11—The committee recommends that the government work with the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency to continue to develop targeted policies that encourage mature engineers to remain in or return to the workforce.

13 Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee, 2012, The shortage of engineering and related employment skills, aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_Employment_and_Workplace_Relations/Completed%20inquiries/2010-13/engineering/index, accessed 12 June 2014, p. viii. 14 Ibid., p. 1.



AWPA commissioned separate research in relation to Recommendation 3 to examine the reasons for the high attrition rates of engineering apprentices.15 ACIL Allen Consulting and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) investigated qualification commencements and completions in engineering trade apprenticeships in Australia. This research, published in March 2014, found that individual completion rates in engineering trade apprenticeships have remained relatively unchanged over the past seven years, with engineering trades consistently ahead of all trades. Employment-related issues were cited as a factor in 70 per cent of non-completions, this includes apprentices leaving to do something different or better, such as being offered a better job; interpersonal difficulties with employers or colleagues; not liking the work, and low wages. By contrast, issues associated with training were the least-frequently cited reasons for not completing an apprenticeship. These findings informed the discussion of vocational education and training (VET) qualification completion rates in Part Two of this study (Section 4.2).

Methodology The study was undertaken using three broad approaches:

a literature review analysis of data sets relating to supply and demand over the last five years, and employment demand

projections to 2019 a stakeholder consultation process which included:

o requests for submissions to AWPA’s Engineering workforce study issues paper.16 A list of the stakeholders consulted is in Appendix B

o a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders (held in Sydney on 8 May 2014) o focus groups comprising of female engineers, mature-aged engineers and students (convened

in major cities during April and May 2014).

AWPA examined the engineering workforce by drawing on engineering occupations at the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) four-digit level, across the spectrum of professionals, managers, technicians and trades workers. Given the large number of engineering occupations across various industries, the study focussed on the engineering occupations on the Specialised Occupations List as these are occupations that are in demand and difficult to source domestically (see Appendix A). All figures and tables in the report refer to occupations on the Specialised Occupations List apart from graphs and tables that refer to field of education.17

15 ACIL Allen Consulting, 2014, Engineering apprentices: review of qualification completions in engineering trades apprenticeships, commissioned by AWPA, awpa.gov.au/publications/Documents/Engineering%20apprentices%20report.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014. 16 AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper, unpublished. 17 The following tables and figures do not refer exclusively to occupations on the Specialised Occupations List as listed in Table 17: Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 20, Table 11, Table 12, and Table 13.



Literature review—key themes The engineering workforce in Australia, both in professional and some trade and technical occupations, has been the subject of close scrutiny in recent times due to an ongoing and critical shortage of skills.18 The Senate inquiry comprehensively reviewed both the existing literature and a large number of submissions by industry stakeholders and individuals, which resulted in a number of recommendations to address workforce participation and labour shortages.19 One issue noted in the committee’s report is that before the 1990s, the public sector was the primary trainer of engineering graduates. However, the outsourcing of engineering procurement to the private sector has reduced both the number of public sector engineering employees and the availability of engineering cadetships in both sectors, changing the landscape of engineering training by shifting responsibility for training engineers to the private sector.20

While significant, the supply pipeline is not the only issue—changes in industry structure, broadly from public to private, have seen a decline in opportunities for engineering graduates or those with less than five years’ experience. The literature suggests that cost pressures on employers reduce the availability of formalised traineeships,21 which influences perceptions about the work-readiness of graduates.22

Skills Australia’s submission to the Senate inquiry highlighted a number of factors contributing to engineering skills shortages, including education and training shortfalls, wastage (people trained in engineering skills but not working in engineering-related occupations) and workforce exits.23 Engineers working in non-engineering occupations and the lack of opportunities available for engineering graduates who do not have the experience necessary for most engineering roles have been identified as particular problems.

Further, recent literature on engineering skills in Australia reveals concern about shortages, particularly in the engineering professions and also in the engineering trades and technical occupations. The current pipeline of professional engineering skills supply is considered to be insufficient for meeting current and predicted demand over the next few years.24

Skills shortages, especially in specialised engineering professions,25 will contribute to cost overruns, delays and reduced value of projects for taxpayers and

18 Department of Employment, 2012, Labour market research: engineering trades, docs.employment.gov.au/collections/engineering-trades-labour-market-research-reports, accessed 17 January 2014; Skills Australia, 2012, Submission to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee Inquiry into the shortage of engineering and related employment skills, awpa.gov.au/publications/documents/Senate-Submission-Engineers-9-March-2012.pdf, accessed 17 June 2014, pp. 12–15; AWPA, 2013, Skilled Occupation List, immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/skilled-occupation-list.htm, accessed 17 January 2014. 19 Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee, 2012, The shortage of engineering and related employment skills, pp. vii–viii. 20 Ibid., pp. 6–8. 21 Australian National Engineering Taskforce (ANET), 2010, Scoping our future: addressing Australia’s engineering skills shortage, anet.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Scoping-our-futureWEB.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014. 22 Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee, 2012, The shortage of engineering and related employment skills, p. 43. 23 Skills Australia, 2012, Submission to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee’s Inquiry into the shortage of engineering and related employment skills, p. iv. 24 Engineers Australia, 2013, The engineering profession: a statistical overview, 10th edn, engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/shado/Representation/Stats/2013_statistical_overview_australia.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014, pp. 84–94. 25 ANET, 2011, Engineering skills capacity in the road and rail industries, anet.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ANET-Road-and-Rail1.pdf, accessed 17 January 2014, p. 31.



customers.26 This is particularly important for vital civil infrastructure such as civil road and rail projects, where capacity shortfalls and delays can reduce civilian amenity.27

Much of this research focuses on professional engineers, but engineering-related trade and technical occupations are also subject to shortages.28

As highlighted in the recent review by the Office of the Chief Scientist, the inadequate skills pipeline through tertiary education is common to all professions that are based in STEM.29 The number of secondary students studying advanced mathematics and science is declining, affecting the available pool of students able to undertake tertiary qualifications in engineering.30 Research also identifies a lack of awareness of engineering as a career option for secondary students.31

The body of research on workforce participation by minorities in engineering is also not encouraging, as women, in particular, remain only a fraction of the engineering workforce.32 Issues in the workplace persist, especially regarding workplace culture (including harassment) and inflexibility, pay inequality, and perceptions of the abilities of women to perform the same roles as their male counterparts.33

The literature review provides insights into key challenges for engineering, including enhancing the quality and quantity of domestic engineering skills supply, improving the utilisation of skilled migrants’ engineering skills, and addressing systemic, gendered issues around the participation of women in engineering.

Transforming existing stereotypes and perceptions around engineering careers is also important to attract young students into engineering careers. Current research into key topics such as engineering curriculum, articulation pathways between VET and higher education engineering degrees, and gendered roles and workplaces in engineering assisted with discussions in this report and complemented AWPA’s consultations with stakeholders and with focus groups.

26 Business Council of Australia, 2012, Pipeline or pipe dream? Securing Australia’s investment future, bca.com.au/docs/A90A1FDE-0AC7-4B21-B58C-3D5B99EF16C5/pipeline_or_pipe_dream_overview_and_full_study_combined_final_7-6-2012.pdf, accessed 26 June 2014, p. 4. 27 ANET, 2011, Engineering skills capacity in the road and rail industries, pp. vii–viii. 28 Smith A, 2002, Evidence of skills shortages in the engineering trades, NCVER, ncver.edu.au/publications/781. html, accessed 17 January 2014, pp. 29–33. 29 Office of the Chief Scientist, 2012, Mathematics, engineering and science in the national interest, chiefscientist.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/Office-of-the-Chief-Scientist-MES-Report-8-May-2012.pdf, accessed 17 January 2014, pp. 12–14; Australian Industry Group, 2012, Lifting our science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills, aigroup.com.au/portal/binary/com.epicentric.contentmanagement.servlet.ContentDeliveryServlet/LIVE_CONTENT/Publications/Reports/2013/Ai_Group_Skills_Survey_2012-STEM_FINAL_PRINTED.pdf, accessed 11 June 2014, pp. 1–3. 30 Office of the Chief Scientist, 2012, Health of Australian science, chiefscientist.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/HASReport_Web-Update_200912.pdf, accessed 11 June 2014, pp. 43–56; ANET, 2012, Realising an innovation economy, anet.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ANET_Realising_Innov_econ.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014, pp. 24–32. 31 Sikora J, 2014, Gendered pathways into the post-secondary study of science, NCVER occasional paper, ncver.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/e5151897-c7fd-4df7-a221-8810b195408a/Gendered-pathways-2714.pdf, accessed 27 May 2014; Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study, commissioned by the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency, unpublished. 32 Engineers Australia, 2013, The engineering profession: a statistical overview, p. 6. 33 Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia (APESMA), 2010, Women in the professions: the state of play 2009–10, apesma.com.au/download/?dlID=645, accessed 17 January 2014; Engineers Australia, 2012, Survey of working environment and engineering careers, engineersaustralia.org.au/ sites/default/files/shado/Representation/Member%20Surveys/working_environment_survey_report_2012.pdf, accessed 17 January 2014, pp. 29–56.



What is engineering? There have been many approaches to defining and quantifying the engineering labour force. As such, it is difficult to provide a single consistent definition of engineering that adequately encompasses the broad range of approaches for measuring this group. According to ANZSCO34:

Engineering professionals design, plan and organise the testing, construction, installation and maintenance of structures, machines and their components, and production systems and plants, and plan production schedules and work procedures.

Building and engineering technicians perform tests and provide technical support to Construction Managers and Engineering Professionals in research, design, construction, operation and maintenance of equipment, distribution systems and installations, and resource estimation and site inspection.

Engineering trades workers construct, repair and maintain motor vehicles and aircraft structures and systems, and cut, shape, cast, join and finish metal, metal parts, subassemblies and precision instruments.

The types of activities described in the ANZSCO definition of engineering professionals do not correlate with the specific occupations listed within the classification itself, however, the ANZSCO classification lists a number of occupations that have the words ‘engineer’ or ‘engineering’ in the title description, and these occupations have been used in research as proxies for engineering occupations as a whole. By excluding education requirement of employment, the ANZSCO definition of engineering counts all persons within a particular occupation as ‘engineers’ regardless of their level and nature of their qualifications.

Definitions of engineering have also been developed that focus on the educational requirements underpinning engineering occupations, and limit the reliance on the occupation classification itself. For example, Engineers Australia defines the professional engineering total labour force as consisting of persons who hold at least a Diploma or Advanced Diploma qualification in the field of Engineering and Related Technologies (as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the 2001 Australian Standard Classification of Education), and who are active in the labour force (working in engineering occupations or actively looking for work).35

The definition of engineering used by AWPA in this study matches the engineering-related ANZSCO categories, listed above, with an educational requirement derived from the Australian Standard Classification of Education. This concordance has been used to create three categories of engineering occupations (management, professionals and technicians and trades workers) and to allow for more detail and consistency in the analysis of engineering supply and demand. According to this definition, managers and professionals hold at least a Bachelor qualification and technicians and trades people hold a Certificate III, IV, Diploma or Advanced Diploma.

34 ABS, 2006, Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO), First Edition, Commonwealth of Australia. 35 Engineers Australia, 2010, The engineering profession in Australia: a profile from the 2006 population census, Engineers Australia, Barton, p. 3.



Structure of the report This report is structured in two parts:

Part One examines the national outlook for engineering. It provides a description of what an engineer in Australia is before considering the impact that national and global drivers of change are having on the engineering workforce, including the economic outlook for those industries which account for most of the engineering employment and the impact of globalisation. It also presents an analysis of the workforce’s skill supply and demand, including employment growth in engineering-related industries.

Part Two discusses critical issues impacting on the engineering skills pipeline and makes recommendations to address barriers to increasing the supply of engineers. The discussion examines challenges around the participation of under-represented groups, producing work-ready graduates and attracting new workers to the occupation. Case studies are used throughout to illustrate successful workforce practices.



Part One: Profiling engineering—economic impact, key trends and workforce profile



Chapter One: Engineers in Australia

1.1 What does an engineer do? Engineering skills are required across the economy. The 2011 Census of population and housing and Labour force survey groups indicated that engineers work in a wide range of occupations, and the analytical expertise of engineers is recognised and applied in an expanding range of fields. These include managers, computer software and hardware specialists, and financial analysts, as well as traditional engineering occupations.36

Engineering activities underpin efficient functioning of various parts of the economy such as energy, transport and telecommunications. Engineers are vital cogs in Australian society and are drivers of our economic prosperity, through a variety of roles and responsibilities in a large number of fields, as noted by the Australian National Engineering Taskforce (ANET).37 ANET considers engineers to be the backbone of Australia’s economy because they:

design, build and maintain infrastructure routinely used by the community—roads, railways, ports, water, electricity and gas, and perform key roles in feasibility scoping, structural design, damage control and maintenance—monitoring and addressing safety and quality throughout systems. In industry, our engineers work to ensure that manufacturing, mining and agriculture is world competitive through creatively designed and efficiently produced goods, systems and processes.38

Figure 1 shows the top five industries in which engineers are employed. The majority of engineering professionals (33.4 per cent) are employed in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services industry and include technical or engineering consultancies. Construction is the next highest employer with 23.2 per cent of engineering professionals, followed by 9.2 per cent in Manufacturing. For engineering-related trades, Manufacturing employs the largest number of engineering trade workers (38.5 per cent), followed by Mining (13.0 per cent) and Other Services (9.2 per cent). Engineers are found, in varying densities, in 13 other Australia New Zealand Standard Industry Classification industries divisions such as Transport, Postal and Warehousing; and Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services.

36 Engineers Australia, 2010, The engineering profession in Australia: a profile from the 2006 population census, Engineers Australia, Barton. 37 ANET was a partnership arrangement set up between Professionals Australia, Engineers Australia, Consult Australia, the Australian Council of Engineering Deans and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering to rebuild, grow and maintain Australia’s professional engineering capacity. 38 ANET, 2012, Realising an innovation economy, p. 14.



Figure 1: Industry distribution of engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2013

Source: ABS, 2013, Labour force survey, four-quarter average (custom request).

1.2 National outlook for engineer-related industries While there is demand for engineering skills across the economy, four industries (Mining; Manufacturing; Professional, Scientific and Technical Services; and Construction) are key drivers of demand. The national outlook for these industries is discussed below.

Mining The mining sector is anticipated to have strong growth transition over the next three to five years, from a largely construction phase to a phase of production for mining and oil and gas. The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE), the Australian Government Department of Treasury and the Reserve Bank of Australia forecast strong growth in mining and gas production in the period ahead.39 BREE’s list of major resources projects (as of April 2014) shows there were 48 projects at the committed stage with a total value of $229 billion and 146 advanced projects valued at $169 billion where final investment decisions have been made.40 While the number of committed projects decreased over the last six months, BREE notes that ‘the peak of investment boom has now passed but opportunities for further investment still remain’.41

39 AWPA, 2013, Resources sector skills needs: skills for a transitioning resources sector, key messages document, awpa.gov.au/publications/Documents/Resources%20sector%20skills%20needs%202013%20key%20messages.pdf, accessed 26 June 2014. 40 Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE), 2014, Resources and energy major projects April 2014, bree.gov.au/publications/resources-and-energy-major-projects, accessed 4 June 2014, pp. 10, 15. 41 Ibid.



Modelling developed for AWPA’s Resources sector skills needs report 2013 details projections of occupations for 2014–18 across resources-related Construction, Mining Operations, and Oil and Gas Operations subsectors. It highlights that the resource sector is in transition, moving away from construction to the less labour intensive operations phase.42 Steady increases in employment are forecast for the Mining Operations, and Oil and Gas Operations subsectors while declines are forecast in the Resources Project Construction subsector.43 Oil and Gas Operations are anticipated to produce the most significant employment gains as many major liquefied natural gas projects move from construction into their production phase.44

Forecasting mining output can be problematic due to the volatility of world economic trading conditions. However, the strong outlook for production appears to be underpinned by international demand for Australia’s energy and commodities exports. For example, the International Energy Agency predicts that demand for gas will reach comparable levels of the demand for coal in 2035, with 80 per cent of the additional demand coming from non-OECD countries. It also proposes that global coal use will rise for the next 10 years, and level off 25 per cent above the 2009 levels.45 Further, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank notes strong growth in international demand for Australian commodity exports with exports predicted to rise by 6.9 per cent a year for the next five years.46

Manufacturing Manufacturing has been in transition for decades as tariff cuts, industry restructuring, changing technologies and the outsourcing of tasks to lower cost economies have affected the sector. More recently, the high Australian dollar and slower productivity growth across the economy have placed additional pressure on the industry. According to three out of the four most plausible growth scenarios to 2025 developed by AWPA for Future focus: national workforce strategy 2013,47 Manufacturing is expected to account for between 5.2 and 6.8 per cent of gross domestic product each year to 2025 and have declines in employment of between 1.0 and 1.5 per cent. Only Beverage and Tobacco Manufacturing and Primary Metal and Metal Product Manufacturing are predicted to grow in all scenarios.48 The scenarios do not take into account the end of Australian motor vehicle manufacturing.

There are some known opportunities for the Australian Manufacturing sector in the next decade. Conservative estimates suggest that increasing non-resource exports to Asia could provide the Australian

42 AWPA, 2013, Resources sector skills needs report 2013, awpa.gov.au/publications/Documents/Resources%20sector%20skills%20needs%202013%20final.pdf, accessed 27 June 2014, p. 14. 43 Ibid. 44 Ibid. 45 International Energy Agency, 2011, World Energy Outlook, eia.gov/forecasts/ieo/pdf/0484(2013).pdf, accessed 26 June 2014, p. 67. 46 HSBC, 2012, Australia’s great rebalancing act, looking beyond the mining boom, hsbc.com.au/1/PA_ES_Content_Mgmt/content/australia/about/research/archive/2012/OZ121207.pdf, accessed 6 May 2014, p. 7. 47 AWPA, 2013, Future focus: national workforce strategy 2013, awpa.gov.au/our-work/Workforce%20development/national-workforce-development-strategy/2013-workforce-development-strategy/Documents/FutureFocus2013NWDS.pdf, accessed 26 June 2014. 48 AWPA, 2014, Manufacturing workforce study, awpa.gov.au/publications/Documents/Manufacturing%20workforce%20study.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014, p. 13.



economy with an additional $60 billion to $115 billion over 10 years.49 As manufactured products currently

represent around 76 per cent of Australian merchandise exports, excluding mining,50 a substantial part of

this potential export opportunity could be available to Australian manufacturers. Additionally, the Australian defence forces will procure a new submarine fleet in the near future, and while the Australian Government has not yet announced whether the submarines will not be manufactured in Australia, engineering skills will be required during the procurement stage and in the maintenance of the fleet.51

A number of reports have identified areas of growth potential for Australian manufacturing, noting that the sector must develop value-added and niche products.52 The Council of Australian Governments tasked its new Industry and Skills Council with fostering internationally competitive high-end manufacturing in Australia.53 This transition is well underway with products such as Australian pharmaceuticals, medical instruments and scientific equipment already making their mark.

In the 2014–15 Budget, the Australian Government announced programs aimed at growing advanced manufacturing. The Manufacturing Transition Grants Programme will provide $50 million over three years to assist manufacturers to transition to higher value and niche manufacturing. Similarly, the Next Generation Manufacturing Investment Programme has funding of $35.8 million over five years to support high-value manufacturing in Victoria and South Australia.54

To drive competitiveness in this context, there is a need to increase the industry’s skills base in high-technology research and development and product innovation, together with skills required in advanced manufacturing processes. Industry commentators note that employing relatively highly skilled engineers at graduate and intermediate levels will be an important element to upskilling,55 and Manufacturing Skills Australia identified engineering occupations in technical areas as a key occupational group for future manufacturing.56

49 Asialink Taskforce, 2012, Developing an Asia capable workforce—a national strategy, University of Melbourne, asialink.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/619793/Developing_an_Asia_Capable_Workforce.pdf, accessed 18 June 2014, p. 8. 50 ABS, 2014, International trade in goods and services, Australia, cat. no. 5368.0. 51 Skills Australia, 2012, Skills Australia, 2012, Building Australia’s defence supply capabilities, main report for the Defence Industry workforce study, awpa.gov.au/publications/Documents/BuildingAustraliasDefenceSupplyCapabilities_260912.pdf, accessed 6 June 2014. 52 AWPA, 2013, Manufacturing workforce issues paper, awpa.gov.au/publications/Documents/Manufacturing%20workforce%20issues.pdf, accessed 26 June 2014, pp. 15–16. 53 Council of Australian Governments, 2013, COAG communique, 13 December, coag.gov.au/node/516, accessed 18 June 2014, p. 5. 54 Commonwealth of Australia, 2014, Budget measures, Budget paper no. 2, budget.gov.au/2014-15/content/bp2/html/index.htm, accessed 20 May 2014. 55 Davis C, Hogarth T and Gambin L, 2012, Sector skills insights: manufacturing, evidence report 48, UK Commission for Employment and Skills, pp. 26–28. 56 Manufacturing Skills Australia, 2013, submission to AWPA, 2014, Manufacturing workforce study.



Professional, Scientific and Technical Services According to AWPA’s growth scenarios, developed for Future focus: national workforce strategy 2013, the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services industry is forecast to grow at almost twice the rate for all industries to 2025 across all four scenarios.57

Similarly, the Innovation and Business Skills Australia (IBSA) Industry Skills Council’s 2014 environmental scan notes that the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) subsector will grow as more firms outsource business service functions and respond to increases in online information, creative and enabling software, cloud computing and other ICT activities. 58 It considers that major drivers of this growth will be a requirement to leverage new technologies such as cloud, mobility, big data and social media to build solutions that enhance customer experience and reduce operational costs.

59

Australia’s ICT infrastructure is still poorer than many other comparable Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The National Broadband Network (NBN) is a roll out of a national wholesale, open access, high speed broadband network. The Australian Government has provided $29.5 billion for the continued rollout of the NBN.60 As at 5 June 2014, the rollout was underway at 229,000 premises and planning for an additional 167,000 homes and businesses had also started.61

Gartner Inc. estimated nearly a 5 per cent increase in enterprise IT spending in Australia—an increase of $4 million from 2012–13.62 Global demand for ICT will also be strong. A study by consultants from the International Data Corporation forecast long-term strong growth for the global research and development and the product engineering services markets as the trend towards outsourcing contracts for technology product development, engineering and innovation work continues. It also forecasts that customers will increase their outsourcing spend for these services, with the services estimated to reach approximately $66.2 billion in 2017.63

Construction The Construction and Property Services Industry Skills Council’s (CPSISC) 2014–15 environmental scan reports that property and construction markets are rebounding across the globe.64 CPSISC forecasts predict that while Construction will have lower growth levels beyond 2016, it is well placed to continue to provide stable and sustained employment growth to over the next decade compared to other sectors in the

57 Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency, 2013, Future focus: national workforce strategy 2013, awpa.gov.au/our-work/Workforce%20development/national-workforce-development-strategy/2013-workforce-development-strategy/Documents/FutureFocus2013NWDS.pdf, accessed 26 June 2014 58 IBSA, 2014, Environmental scan 2014, keeping one step ahead, ibsa.org.au/environment-scan-escan, accessed 10 May 2014, p. 22. 59 Ibid. 60 Department of Communications, 2014, Shareholder Ministers’ advice to NBN Co, 8 April, communications.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/221162/SOE_Shareholder_Minister_letter.pdf, accessed 11 June 2014, p. 1. 61 NBN Co, 2014, ‘NBN publishes more rollout information’, media release, 5 June, nbnco.com.au/about-us/media/news/nbn-enhances-rollout-map.html, accessed 11 June 2014. 62 Gartner Inc., 2012, ‘Gartner says consumer-facing industries will drive IT investment in Australia in the next five years’, media release, 19 November, gartner.com/newsroom/id/2244515, accessed 26 June 2014. 63 International Data Corporation, 2013, Worldwide and U.S. research and development/product engineering services 2013–2017 forecast, idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=244932, accessed 12 May 2013. 64 Construction and Property Services Industry Skills Council (CPSISC), 2014, Environmental scan 2014–15, cpsisc.com.au/resources/CPSISC/Corporate_docs/CPSISC%20ES%202014%20FINAL2.pdf, accessed 17 June 2014, p. 8.



economy.65 Construction employment is forecast to grow by at least 1.53 per cent per annum between 2012 and 2016, reflecting larger investment work during the period.66 Residential building construction and heavy and civil engineering construction is projected to grow by 2.3 and 2.4 per cent per annum, while residential building employment is expected to increase by 1.2 per cent per annum between 2012–13 and 2015–16.67 Construction services employment will grow by 1.4 per cent per annum for the same period.68

There are a number of large scale infrastructure projects planned across Australia in the coming years. While most of the job creation will be in construction trades, there will be extensive associated engineering skills required for these projects (up to thousands of professional and paraprofessional engineers). These projects include:

The Badgerys Creek new international airport for Sydney, estimated to create 60,000 jobs by 2060. Four thousand jobs will be created in the construction phase and an additional 35,000 jobs generated by the development of the airport by 2035.69

In NSW, the $10 billion WestConnex motorway project is expected to create more than 10,000 jobs from 2015 to 2023,70 and the 30 kilometre Sydney Rapid Transit will extend the $8.3 billion North West Rail Link, which was originally expected to provide more than 16,000 jobs (at a cost of $8.3 billion).71 Further, a second Sydney Harbour rail crossing is planned and two new extensions to the WestConnex are being considered by the NSW Government.72

In Victoria, the Regional Rail Link is estimated to directly or indirectly employ 6,200 people,73 the $1.6 billion Port of Melbourne redevelopment will provide an additional 1,100 direct and 1,900 indirect jobs by its completion in late 2016,74 and the $6–8 billion East West Link will create at least 3,200 jobs.75

In the 2014–15 Budget year, the Department of Defence has 79 active major defence capital facilities projects under construction across Australia. This includes 22 projects in-use and in the final stages of

65 Centre for International Economics, 2013, Future forecasts: construction and property skills 2016–26, https://www.cpsisc.com.au/resources/CPSISC/Corporate_docs/CPSISC%20CIE%20Future%20Forecasts%20Final%2027%20May%202013_v2.pdf, accessed 26 June 2014, pp. 11–13. 66 Ibid, p. 11. 67 Ibid, p. 12. 68 CPSISC, 2013, ‘Lock in’ skills to help break structural deficit says Industry Report’, media release, 28 May, cpsisc.com.au/newsarticles/lock-in-skills-to-help-break-structural-deficit-says-industry-report-, accessed 12 May 2014. 69 Griffiths E, ‘Badgerys Creek: second Sydney airport gets Federal Government approval’, ABC News, 15 April, abc.net.au/news/2014-04-15/badgerys-creek-second-sydney-airport-gets-go-ahead/5318378, accessed 12 June 2014. 70 WestConnex, 2013, Employment opportunities, westconnex.com.au/internal-pages/about/employment-opportunities.html, accessed 20 December 2013. 71 New South Wales Government, 2014, North West Rail Link project overview, nwrail.transport.nsw.gov.au/The-Project/Project-Overview#1, accessed 26 June 2014. 72 WestConnex, 2014, ‘Rebuilding NSW: Government declares war on congestion’, 10 June 2014, westconnex.com.au/news/media_releases/media_releases_2014/20140610_government_declares_war_on_congestion.html, accessed 12 June 2014. 73 Victorian Government, 2013, Regional Rail Link project benefits, regionalraillink.vic.gov.au/about/benefits, accessed 4 March 2013. 74 Victorian Government, 2013, Planning approval for $1.6 billion Port of Melbourne redevelopment, media release, 22 February, premier.vic.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/6102-planning-approval-for-16-billion-port-of-melbourne-redevelopment.html, accessed 26 June 2014. 75 Edwards J, ‘Government commits funds for East West link’, ABC News, 7 May, abc.net.au/news/2013-05-07/government-commits-funds-for-east-west-link/4674334, accessed 26 June 2014.



contract completion; and a further two projects each below $2 million in capital value.76 The projects require skilled consultants, subcontractors and general construction industry skills generating a significant amount of short-term employment within the building, construction and unskilled labour market. In 2012, AWPA’s predecessor, Skills Australia, undertook a study into Australia’s defence supply capabilities that highlighted the importance of a range of engineering professions and trades to Australia’s defence materiel supply industries.77

1.3 Impact of engineering across the economy Engineering plays a significant role in the Australian economy. However, its direct contribution is difficult to gauge because engineering skills are widely used throughout different industry sectors.

The main engineering-related sectors of Mining; Manufacturing; Professional, Scientific and Technical Services and Construction make significant contributions to gross domestic product (see Table 1). The data shows Construction and Mining have the highest gross value added of the engineering-related industries, while the combined gross value added of all four industries is around $473.6 billion (or 31 per cent of total gross domestic product).

Table 1: Gross Value Added (GVA) and contribution to total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for selected industries, (Chain Volume Measures), 2013

Industry GVA (chain volume measures) ($ billion)

GVA as a percentage of GDP, (chain volume measures) (%)

Mining 154.5 10.0 Construction 116.2 7.5 Manufacturing 102.8 6.6 Professional, Scientific and Technical Services 100.1 6.5

Total 473.6 30.6 Note: GVA figures for the 2013 calendar year have been calculated by summing up GVA figures (original terms) for the March, June, September and December quarters in 2013. Source: ABS, 2014, Australian national accounts, National income, expenditure and product, December quarter 2013, cat. no. 5206.0, Table 6, original data.

A lack of appropriately qualified engineers can have severe impacts on the economy. In its 2012 submission to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee Inquiry into the shortage of engineering and related employment skills AWPA’s predecessor, Skills Australia, noted that continued shortfalls in engineering capacity can hold back investment and productivity growth.78 Engineers Australia identified the general impacts of the recent engineering skills shortage, including cost overruns and

76 Department of Defence, 2014, Agency resources and planned performance: defence portfolio estimate statements, 2014–15, defence.gov.au/Budget/14-15/2014-2015_Defence_PBS_03_Defence.pdf, accessed 25 June 2014. 77 Skills Australia, 2012, Building Australia’s defence supply capabilities, main report for the Defence Industry workforce study. 78 Skills Australia, 2012, Submission to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee Inquiry into the shortage of engineering and related employment skills, p. 17.



increases in the cost of labour, loss of engineering activity to the economy, loss of projects overseas and costs associated with project cancellations, and a reduction in the quality of project outcomes.79

1.4 The impact of globalisation on the competitiveness of Australian engineering businesses Globalisation refers to the integration of previously distinct national markets and economies. Globalisation has impacts on both supply and demand dynamics. The impact of globalisation varies across firms, sectors and regions. The global market continues to increase, facilitated by more open trading regimes; technological advances which reduce search, transaction and transport costs; and reforms which permit ease of international movements of capital.80

Within our local region, we are seeing the transformation of the Asian region into an economic powerhouse with an expanding middle class. The rise of the middle class in Asia, in particular, brings with it potential opportunities for Australian exports, including the export of knowledge and expertise.

The global trade of goods and services provides both opportunities and threats to the competiveness of Australian engineering businesses. Greater and more efficient international trade markets allow Australia to capitalise on the engineering skills that assist us in producing high quality goods. However, it also leaves the domestic market exposed to the import of better or cheaper goods produced overseas.

With globalisation and the internationalisation of technology and labour markets, the world economy also saw the emergence of global value chains in the late 1990s, which both ‘fragmented production processes across countries and continents and boosted network trade’.81 The production of goods and services is increasingly carried out wherever the necessary skills and materials are available at competitive cost and quality (see Figure 2). The result is that the research, development, design, assembly, production of parts, marketing and branding stages of goods can each take place in a different part of the world, and under different regulatory conditions.82 This has given rise to significant firm restructuring to include outsourcing and offshoring,83 and also a policy imperative to ensure Australia benefits from greater involvement in these sorts of international production networks.84

For those undertaking engineering tasks, the impact of the increases in global supply chains can be felt in a number of ways. Involvement in a global supply chain increases opportunities for businesses. Engineers may be involved in the design or production of components of products. However, global supply chains also allow large companies to produce goods more efficiently and therefore perhaps undersell other companies’ products. Involvement in a global supply chain also allows a business to expand, capitalising on the supply chain revenue to offer more competitive pricing for other work.

79 Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee, 2012, The shortage of engineering and related employment skills, p. 49. 80 Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources, 2007, Background paper 4—drivers of change in the Australian Industry, p. 4. 81 Banga R, 2013, ‘Measuring value in global value chains’, background paper no. RVC-8, Unit of Economic Cooperation and Integration among Developing Countries, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, May, unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ecidc2013misc1_bp8.pdf, accessed 26 June 2014, p. 4. 82 Gurría A, 2012, ‘The emergence of global value chains: What do they mean for business?’, G20 Trade and Investment Promotion Summit, Mexico City, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 5 November 2012. 83 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2010, Measuring globalisation: OECD economic globalisation indicators 2010, browse.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/pdfs/free/9210031e.pdf, accessed 18 June 2014, p. 208. 84 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2003, Globalisation keeping the gains, dfat.gov.au/publications/globalisation_gains/globalisation_keeping_gains.pdf, accessed 18 June 2014.



Figure 2: Example of a global value chain—manufacturing and assembly of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Source: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2013, Trade at a glance 2013, pp. 24–25.

It is more difficult for small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to partake in global supply chains. Many international businesses do not wish to deal with companies the size of many Australian SMEs,85 and SMEs that are part of supply chains may find themselves vulnerable to decisions by larger firms in the chain. This may hinder their ability to compete globally, increasing the need for larger manufacturing firms to play a key role in global supply changes. The challenges for Australia’s SMEs are increased because of the relative remoteness of our firms. Scale linked to remoteness has decreased our opportunities for trade, knowledge transfer and relationship building. This works against competition, innovation and export growth, and produces a unique industrial structure: large multinationals in resources and food, large domestic services oligopolies and a long tail of SMEs.86

In this context, Professional, Scientific and Technical Services and Manufacturing are the two sectors most at risk of suffering more negative impacts of globalisation as they engage in a type of work more susceptible to the impacts of global trade. The challenge for businesses in these industries is to increase and potentially modify production to meet new demands, while also retaining the existing industry base.87 A different range of skills will be required to capitalise on benefits. These capabilities include adaptability,

85 Prime Minister’s Manufacturing Taskforce, 2012, Smarter manufacturing for a smarter Australia: report of the non-government members, industry.gov.au/industry/manufacturing/Taskforce/Documents/SmarterManufacturing.pdf, accessed 18 June 2014, p. 43–45. 86 Ibid., p. 15. 87 Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2012, Australia in the Asian century, white paper, pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/133850/20130914-0122/asiancentury.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/white-paper/australia-in-the-asian-century-white-paper.pdf, accessed 18 June 2014, p. 115.



flexibility, resilience, creative and design thinking, and the confidence and readiness to interact with and operate in other countries.

Globalisation of services In 2012, global services exports were valued at US$4.4 trillion and accounted for 19.4 per cent of the world's total exports.88 Australia’s services trade balance has been positive since the turn of the century, and services exports are the second largest export category, behind resources.89 Both the increasing trend towards globalisation and the reduction in ICT prices and new ICT technologies are facilitating increased trade in services.90 However, similar to the trade of goods, services that can be exported or imported are still subject to numerous restrictions.91

The import and export of engineering services potentially creates both opportunities and threats to Australian engineering firms. An important factor that impacts on the import and export of engineering services is the ability to legally provide engineering services internationally. There is an International Engineering Alliance which administers a number of international accords on the recognition of competence for engineers. 92 A stated goal of the alliance is to contribute to the globalisation of professional engineering services.93 The alliance notes it is of particular benefit to engineering firms that are providing services to other economies but it also adds value to individuals who may wish, at some stage, to work in these economies.94

Within Australia there is no legal ownership of the occupation title ‘engineer’. Anyone can call themselves an engineer and with the exception of Queensland there is no requirement to be registered to provide engineering advice. This makes it easier to import engineering services.

Australia has two voluntary, self-regulated systems: the Chartered status administered by Engineers Australia and the separate National Engineering Registers for Professional engineers, engineering technologists and associate engineers also administered by Engineers Australia. It is through these two schemes that Australia’s participation and individual’s registration in the international engineering alliances takes place. However, as noted above, the lack of legal restrictions around the occupation title ‘engineer’ means that the system does not prevent those trained overseas from practising in Australia, even if their qualification is not recognised by Engineers Australia.

1.5 International competition for engineering skills While the domestic labour market may have eased somewhat in relation to the availability of labour in engineering-related occupations, international competition for engineering skills can have implications for companies working in Australia.

88 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2014, Importance of services trade to Australia, dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/services/overview_trade_in_services.html, accessed 18 June 2014. 89 Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources, 2007, Background paper 4—drivers of change in the Australian Industry, p. 9. 90 Ibid., p. 8. 91 OECD, 2010, Measuring globalisation: OECD economic globalisation indicators 2010, p. 44. 92 International Engineering Alliance, 2014, Introduction, ieagreements.org, accessed 30 June 2014. 93 International Engineering Alliance, 2014, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC Engineer), ieagreements.org/APEC, accessed 30 June 2014. 94 Ibid.



Skilled migration—both Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457) and permanent skilled streams—form a significant source of engineering skills. ANET noted that skilled migrant engineers account for more than half of the supply of newly qualified engineers. 95 However, global competition for engineering skills means engineers are in short supply worldwide.96 Later research undertaken by Manpower in 2012 also draws attention to the fact that skills shortages will become more acute as organisations begin to compete for workers in a globally challenging environment.97

Mining projects in Indonesia, Mongolia, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Mozambique all reportedly face skills shortages98 that could delay mining projects and investment plans in the next two years.99 Australia’s skilled workers are in high demand overseas, and companies in Australia compete for skilled resources against overseas companies seeking to attract Australian workers. In fact a study by the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia100 found that more than half of the graduates surveyed expressed interest in working overseas within the next five years.101 While there is no clear data available on how many qualified Australian engineers are working overseas, Engineers Australia estimates it has more than 5,500 accredited members working in more than 100 countries, largely based in East and South-East Asia.102 Many of the large, multinational construction and engineering firms operating in Australia (such as Bechtel, Macmahon Holdings and AECOM) also have large offices overseas, and anecdotally many Australian engineers are attracted to working overseas, particularly on large mining projects (in, for example, Papua New Guinea and Mongolia) and large civil infrastructure projects.103

95 ANET, 2010, Scoping our future: addressing Australia’s engineering skills shortage, p. 28. 96 Ibid. 97 Manpower, 2012, Leveraging talent through training—Australia and New Zealand, research report, manpower.com.au/documents/White-Papers/2012_LeveragingTalentThroughTrainingResearchPaper_2012_Global.pdf, accessed 22 January 2014, pp. 2. 98 Ernst & Young, 2013, Business risks facing mining and metals 2012–2013, ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Business-risk-facing-mining-and-metals-2012-2013/$FILE/Business-risk-facing-mining-and-metals-2012-2013.pdf, accessed 7 November 2013, p. 7. 99 Ibid., p. 14. 100 Now known as Professionals Australia. 101 APESMA, 2011, 2011 Graduate engineer employment survey report, p. 4. 102 Engineers Australia, 2014, Overseas chapters, engineersaustralia.org.au/membership/overseas-chapters-0, accessed 21 January 2014. 103 Stakeholder consultations undertaken for AWPA, 2013, Resources sector skills needs report 2013.



Chapter Two: Skills demand and supply

2.1 Snapshot of the labour market

Employment profile The data in this report focuses on the 22 engineering occupations on the Specialised Occupations List (Appendix A). These are occupations that are in demand and difficult to source domestically.

In 2013 there were 605,600 workers employed in the 22 engineering occupations (352,100 engineering professionals and 253,500 engineering-related trade workers).

This engineering workforce accounts for around 5 per cent of the total workforce in Australia. Four occupational groups account for almost 60 per cent of all engineering-related workers:

Metal Fitters and Machinists (115,400 workers) Software and Application Programmers (88,600 workers) Structural Steel and Welding Trade Workers (78,400 workers) Construction Managers (75,500 workers).

Key labour market indicators Figure 3 highlights that the employment levels for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades grew between 2008 and 2013. However, the growth in the number of engineering professionals was significantly larger at 13.5 per cent (41,900 people) than the growth experienced in engineering-related trades (2.4 per cent or 6,000 people).

Figure 3: Employment levels for engineering professions and engineering-related trades, 2008–13

Source: ABS, 2013, Labour force survey, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003; four-quarter average.



Employment data at the individual occupation levels shows that while there was overall growth over the 2008–13 period it was uneven, with a decline in some engineering-related trade occupations (Electronic Engineers; Metal Casting and Forging and Finishing Trades; Structural Steel and Welding Trade Workers; Precision Metal Trade Workers) and one engineering professional occupation (Telecommunication Technical Specialists).

Metal Fitters and Machinists experienced the largest growth in employment levels—an increase of 11.3 per cent (or 11,700 workers) over the period. Software and Application Programmers; Electrical Engineers; and Civil Engineers and Construction Managers also grew strongly (see Figure 4).



Figure 4: Employment levels for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades, 2008 and 2013




2.2 Demand for engineering skills It is difficult to quantify the demand for engineers in the various industry sectors. Demand for engineering skills can be unstable as it may ebb and flow over the years according to the nature of several sectors. Future growth based on past employment trends can provide some indication of future demand. The increasing demand for engineering skills arising from the various infrastructure projects (outlined in Section 1.2) means that demand for engineering workers is likely to continue to rise.

However, it is important to note that the increases in the employment levels of the engineering workforce over the past few years may not be sustainable in the long term. Industry projects are dependent on the favourable economic conditions in the future. Changing government priorities, changes in manufacturing and the transition to less labour-intensive phases in industries are expected to affect the industry distribution of engineers.

Projections for future employment demand AWPA’s projections (see Table 2) indicate employment for engineering occupations on the Specialised Occupations List is expected to grow significantly over the next six years by 49,900 workers, which is 1.3 per cent per year. Construction Managers and Software and Applications Programmers are forecast to have the strongest employment growth of 14,400 (3.0 per cent per year) and 11,900 workers (2.1 per cent per year) respectively.

Eight occupations are forecast to experience declines in employment growth. Of these occupations, six are engineering-related trade occupations. The projected decrease in the number of workers over the six-year period to 2019 is listed below:

–4,200 (–2.2 per cent per year) for Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers –3,700 (–15.4 per cent per year ) for Electronic Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians –1,600 (–3.3 per cent per year) for Sheet Metal Trades Workers –1,000 (–8.3 per cent per year) for Metal Casting, Forging and Finishing Trades Workers –1,000 (–5.5 per cent per year) for Telecommunications Technical Specialists –700 (–0.9 per cent per year) Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians –200 (–0.6 per cent per year) for Precision Metal Trades Workers –100 (–0.2 per cent per year) for Chemical and Materials Engineers.



Table 2: Employment projections for engineering-related occupations, February 2014 to February 2019, four-quarter average

ANZSCO Description Employment level in 2013, four quarter

average (000s)

Projected employment level

in 2019, four quarter average

(000s)

Employment growth 2013 to

2019, four quarter average (000s)

Average annual growth, 2013 to

2019 (%) 1331 Construction Managers 75.5 89.9 14.4 3.0 1332 Engineering Managers 19.6 26.6 7.1 5.3 2331 Chemical and Materials

Engineers 5.3 5.2 -0.1 -0.2

2332 Civil Engineering Professionals

44.6 50.8 6.2 2.2

2333 Electrical Engineers 22.5 25.3 2.8 1.9 2334 Electronics Engineers 8.3 8.5 0.2 0.3 2335 Industrial, Mechanical and

Production Engineers 34.1 29.9 -4.2 -2.2

2336 Mining Engineers 12.1 13.9 1.9 2.4 2339 Other Engineering

Professionals 8.3 10.1 1.8 3.3

2613 Software and Applications Programmers

88.6 100.5 11.9 2.1

2631 Computer Network and Systems Engineer

25.5 31.9 6.4 3.8

2633 Telecommunications Engineering Professionals

7.7 9.5 1.8 3.5

3122 Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians

13.1 12.4 -0.7 -0.9

3123 Electrical Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians

7.9 8.7 0.7 1.5

3124 Electronic Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians

5.8 2.1 -3.7 -15.4

3132 Telecommunications Technical Specialists

3.4 2.4 -1.0 -5.5

3221 Metal Casting, Forging and Finishing Trades Workers

2.5 1.5 -1.0 -8.3

3222 Sheet Metal Trades Workers 8.7 7.1 -1.6 -3.3

3223 Structural Steel and Welding Trades Workers

78.4 81.4 2.9 0.6

3231 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers

11.2 12.4 1.2 1.8

3232 Metal Fitters and Machinists 115.4 118.6 3.1 0.4

3233 Precision Metal Trades Workers

7.0 6.8 -0.2 -0.6

All engineering SPOL occupations

605.6 655.5 49.9 1.3

Source: AWPA projections based on ABS, 2013, Labour force survey, custom request.



Projected replacement demand New jobs from the growth in an occupation account for only a portion of all the jobs that are expected to be available during the forecast period. Workers leave jobs for a variety of reasons such as ill health, retirement or transfer to another occupation. These departures create extra opportunities for workers to enter each occupation. This is quantified in the replacement demand figures.

This replacement demand, when added to new jobs, creates a more complete picture of job openings. While projections of job growth and decline provide the best picture of how occupational employment is expected to change, job openings provide a better description of the labour market the new entrants will face.

AWPA’s average annual net replacement rates are calculated using cohorts from the 2006 and 2011 ABS Census. The net replacements rates were then applied to AWPA’s forecasted employment figures to calculate the projected net replacement demand and job openings per year.

Table 3 below illustrates the average annual net replacement rates, projected net replacement demand and projected job opening from 2013 to 2019. Engineering occupations with the highest average annual net replacement rates were:

Metal Casting, Forging and Finishing Trades Workers (3.3 per cent per year) Sheetmetal Trades Workers (2.9 per cent per year) Electronic Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians (2.9 per cent per year).

Applying AWPA’s employment projections from 2013 to 2019 will lead to over 50 net replacements per year for Metal Casting, Forging and Finishing Trades Workers; over 200 net replacements per year for Sheetmetal Trades Workers per year; and around 100 net replacements per year for Electronic Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians per year. More importantly, between 2013 and 2019, there will be over 400 job openings per year for Metal Casting, Forging and Finishing Trades Workers; around 450 job openings per year for Sheetmetal Trades Workers per year; and over 800 job openings per year for Electronic Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians per year.

Occupations with the lowest average annual net replacement rates were:

Civil Engineering Professionals (0.7 per cent per year) Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians (0.7 per cent per year) Other Engineering Professionals (0.8 per cent per year).

Applying AWPA’s employment forecasts from 2013 to 2019 is estimated to lead to around 350 net replacements per year for Civil Engineering Professionals and less than 100 net replacements per year for Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians and Other Engineering Professionals. Moreover, between 2013 and 2019, there will be an estimated 2,000 job openings per year for Civil Engineering Professionals; over 200 for Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians per year; and close to 500 per year for Other Engineering Professionals.



Table 3: Annual average growth for net replacement rate, projected net replacement and projected job openings, 2013–19

ANZSCO Occupation Average annual net

replacement rate (%)

Average annual

net replacements

Average annual

job openings

1331 Construction Managers 1.9 1,645 5,012 1332 Engineering Managers 1.4 342 1,125 2331 Chemical and Materials Engineers 1.8 82 458 2332 Civil Engineering Professionals 0.7 342 1,933 2333 Electrical Engineers 1.8 429 961 2334 Electronics Engineers 2.5 207 560 2335 Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers 1.2 356 1,321

2336 Mining Engineers 1.4 179 714 2339 Other Engineering Professionals 0.8 79 488 2613 Software and Applications Programmers 1.8 1,687 4,777 2631 Computer Network Professionals 2.7 794 2,623 2633 Telecommunications Engineering Professionals 1.6 146 289 3122 Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 0.7 82 231 3123 Electrical Engineering Draftspersons and

Technicians 1.5 132 1,944


2.9 104 811

3132 Telecommunications Technical Specialists 2.7 73 1,520 3221 Metal Casting, Forging and Finishing Trades

Workers 3.3 68 420

3222 Sheetmetal Trades Workers 2.9 216 464 3223 Structural Steel and Welding Trades Workers 1.7 1,389 2,316 3231 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers 1.8 214 611 3232 Metal Fitters and Machinists 2.1 2,438 3,238 3233 Precision Metal Trades Workers 2.4 171 2,743

Note: in calculating net replacement demand and job openings, negative annual employment growth experienced in any occupation was rounded up to zero. Source: AWPA employment projections and net replacement calculations to 2019.

2.3 Supply of engineering skills This section reviews recent and current commencement and completion data for both the VET and higher education sectors as they relate to engineering courses. The focus in this section is on entry level supply.

The 2012 Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations References Committee Inquiry into engineering skills shortages104 and several government reports105 have examined the adequacy of current higher education and VET arrangements for the engineering workforce. Generally these reports have drawn attention to the paradox of the increasing numbers of students graduating from engineering disciplines but

104 Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee, 2012, The shortage of engineering and related employment skills. 105 Such as ANET, 2010, Scoping our future: addressing Australia’s engineering skills shortage, and Smith A, 2002, Evidence of skill shortages in the engineering trades, National Centre for Vocational Education Research, ncver.edu.au/publications/781.html, accessed 18 June 2014.



the decline in overall numbers going into jobs directly relevant to engineering. The data presented in this section provides overall trends in Engineering and Related Technologies; however, it needs to be noted that these overall trends mask differences between specific disciplines.

Trends in higher education The data indicates an increasing pool of students studying for an engineering degree. Figure 5 shows that domestic student commencements in higher education engineering and related courses increased from 2006 to 2012. For instance, domestic undergraduate commencements increased by 32 per cent between 2006 and 2012, while domestic higher degree commencements increased significantly, by 69.4 per cent, during the same period. There was also a significant increase in overseas106 undergraduate and higher degree commencements between 2006 and 2012. Overseas undergraduate commencements increased by 33.3 per cent, while higher degree commencements increased by 50 per cent.

Figure 6 presents data on higher education completions. Higher education completions in Engineering and Related Technologies also show a gradual increase in the number of both undergraduate and higher degree completions between 2006 and 2012. While domestic higher degree completions and overseas Bachelor and higher degree completions increased by 43 per cent 50 per cent and 34 percent respectively, domestic Bachelor completions only rose by 7.8 per cent.

The steady increase in overall commencements and completions has positive implications for industries relying on engineering skills.

106 Overseas refers to individuals from overseas who are completing their qualification in Australia. Sometimes referred to as ‘International students’.



Figure 5: Domestic and overseas Bachelor and higher level award course commencements for Engineering and Related Technologies, 2006–12

Source: Department of Education, Higher education statistics.

Figure 6: Domestic and overseas Bachelor and higher level award course completions by course specialisation for Engineering and Related Technologies, 2006–12

Source: Department of Education, Higher education statistics.



Trends in VET The VET data shows engineering trade commencements fluctuated between 2006 and 2012. Figure 7 and Figure 8 show overall commencements, for Certificate III/IV and Diplomas/Advanced Diplomas, increased from 5,629 in 2006 to peak in 2008 at 6,601, declining to their lowest point in 2009 (4,408) before gradually increasing to 5,805 in 2012. The majority of commencements were at the Certificates III and IV levels.

Stakeholders have suggested that the decline in commencements from 2009 onwards was a consequence of the global financial crisis, which affected major export industries as well SMEs. Regions reliant on Manufacturing and Mining for the generation of employment and other economic activity responded to the crisis by cutting back staff and apprenticeship intakes. Figure 7 shows VET completion numbers have increased steadily over the years, with an increase of 65.6 per cent in Certificates III and IV completions over the 2006 to 2012 period.

Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas commencement numbers increased from 4 in 2007 to 211 in 2012 (see Figure 8). This may indicate a shift to higher level qualification requirements for trade occupations or it could be the emergence of pathways being used by students using VET to progress to higher education engineering courses. This is an area to continue monitoring.

Figure 7: Certificate III/IV commencements and completions for engineering-related trades, 2006–12

Source: NCVER, 2013, VOCSTATS, Students and Courses 2012.

Figure 8 highlights the very low numbers of commencements and completions in higher VET qualifications, compared with Certificate III and IV. This can be explained by the fact that Certificates III and IV are required for engineering trades occupations; Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas are generally completed for paraprofessional engineering occupations, and for articulating into higher education engineering qualifications. Figure 8 relates specifically to engineering-related trades on the Specialised Occupations List,



rather than engineering-related trades. However, the generally low numbers of enrolments in Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas have been acknowledged as a problem for ensuring a supply of skilled engineering paraprofessionals.107 There was a 50 per cent increase in Diploma and Advanced Diploma completions between 2007 and 2012, albeit from a very low base.

Figure 8: Diploma/Advanced Diploma commencements and completions for engineering-related trades, 2006–12

Source: NCVER, 2013, VOCSTATS, Students and courses 2012.

Apart from commencements and completions at the Certificates III and IV level in various engineering-related courses, there were small numbers of commencements and completions at the Certificate II level from 2006 to 2012 (see Table 4)—all of which were in the course for Aircraft Maintenance Engineers.

Table 4: Commencements and completions at the Certificate II level—Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (ANZSCO 3231)

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Commencements 32 67 42 33 41 11 15 Completions 32 30 35 38 33 10 14 Source: NCVER, 2013, VOCSTATS.

107 King R, Dowling D and Godfrey E, 2011, Pathways from VET awards to engineering degrees: a higher education perspective, commissioned by the Australian Council of Engineering Deans, anet.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ANET-Higher-Ed-pathways.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014.



Apprenticeships and traineeships Apprenticeships and traineeships provide an entry into the engineering field by combining study with an employment contract. They form part of the broader VET program. The following tables (Table 5, Table 6, Table 7 and Table 8) show the commencements and completions figures for 2003 to 2012 inclusive, for students undertaking qualifications at various levels in engineering and engineering-related trades. The figures are split by gender, and the clearest trend apparent from this data is that more males commence and complete qualifications in these areas than females.

Table 5 shows that the highest number of apprenticeship and traineeships were undertaken within the Sheetmetal Trades Workers occupation. This occupation made up approximately 80 percent of total commencements in 2012. However the strongest growing occupation was Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians; which increased in total from 17 in 2003 to 338 in 2012. The table also shows that there was a spike in commencements in 2007–08 following a steady rise for most occupations, after which numbers dropped dramatically before they began to rise again. For example, commencements for the Sheetmetal Trades Workers occupation for males in 2008 were at 5,194 and in 2009 they had dropped to 3,210. By 2012 they had only risen to 4,414. This trend was discussed above in relation to the overall VET commencements. It also shows that for commencements in apprenticeships and traineeships at the Certificates III and IV levels, female commencements and completions are increasing at a higher rate than males. Male commencements increased by only 46 per cent between 2003 and 2012, but female commencements increased by 125 per cent over the same period.

Table 6 shows a steady increase in the total number of completions from 2003 to 2012. Similar to commencements, it shows that female completions are increasing at a higher rate than males. Male completions increased by 96 per cent but female completions increased by 263 per cent.

Table 7 shows the commencements in apprenticeships and traineeship at the Diploma and Advanced Diploma level. Commencements have been steadily increasing for males. However they sit far below the total number for Certificate III and IV level. Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians had the highest number of commencements, making up approximately one third of total commencements in 2012. Male and female commencements are minimal until 2008, where we see the number of commencements begin to grow.

Table 8 shows that completion numbers have remained relatively steady over the period; however, the number of completions might increase more dramatically as higher numbers of those who commenced from 2010 complete their courses. Due to the low number of commencements it is difficult to draw more conclusive trends.



Table 5: Apprentices Certificate III/IV commencements for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2006–12

ANZSCO Code Major course occupation (ANZSCO) group 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

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fem

ale

mal

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fem

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fem

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fem

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mal

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fem

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mal

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fem

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mal

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fem

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1331 Construction Managers 3 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 2339 Other Engineering Professionals 42 4 46 1 38 5 19 5 16 2 0 0 0 0 3122 Civil Engineering Draftspersons and

Technicians 53 6 69 7 74 13 54 8 183 10 311 14 326 12

3132 Telecommunications Technical Specialists 163 7 184 3 103 5 20 1 25 1 51 5 42 6 3221 Metal Casting, Forging and Finishing Trades

Workers 43 2 31 1 35 2 41 0 42 0 44 2 50 0

3222 Sheetmetal Trades Workers 4,805 49 4,955 44 5,194 54 3,210 28 4,433 45 4,262 50 4,414 71 3223 Structural Steel and Welding Trades Workers 35 1 18 2 18 0 57 0 73 0 42 0 67 0 3231 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers 291 25 426 20 766 35 730 42 610 38 494 32 400 28 3232 Metal Fitters and Machinists 9 - 1 - 3 - 4 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 3233 Precision Metal Trades Workers 135 5 224 15 216 12 171 7 211 7 200 9 157 16

Total 5,579 99 5,954 93 6,447 126 4,306 91 5,593 103 5,404 112 5,456 133 Source: NCVER, 2013, VOCSTATS, Apprentices and trainees.



Table 6: Apprentices Certificate III/IV completions for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2006–12


mal

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fem

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mal

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fem

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mal

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mal

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1331 Construction Managers 0 - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 2339 Other Engineering Professionals 16 1 33 0 48 4 38 0 33 4 25 3 28 2 3122 Civil Engineering Draftspersons and

Technicians 19 0 13 1 7 0 26 3 31 6 96 7 182 10

3123 Electrical Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians

0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

3132 Telecommunications Technical Specialists 81 3 92 3 88 5 120 2 142 5 100 4 50 2 3221 Metal Casting, Forging and Finishing

Trades Workers 14 0 10 0 13 0 25 0 21 1 16 1 17 2

3222 Sheetmetal Trades Workers 1,833 12 2,401 19 2,941 18 2,958 21 3,254 31 3,003 12 2,827 21 3223 Structural Steel and Welding Trades

Workers 4 0 16 1 8 1 13 0 25 0 25 0 29 0

3231 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers 322 13 361 12 276 20 285 12 239 10 372 20 574 26 3232 Metal Fitters and Machinists 7 0 7 0 1 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3233 Precision Metal Trades Workers 40 3 38 2 51 0 55 2 101 10 112 5 134 6

Total 2,336 32 2,973 38 3,433 48 3,525 40 3,846 67 3,749 52 3,841 69 Source: NCVER, 2013, VOCSTATS, Apprentices and trainees.



Table 7: Apprentices Diploma/Advanced Diploma commencements for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2006–12


mal

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mal

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mal

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1331 Construction Managers 0 0 18 2 12 2 5 0 8 1 19 1 61 4 2333 Electrical Engineers 0 0 0 0 4 1 9 0 29 4 33 1 18 0 2613 Software and Applications Programmers 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 8 0 2631 Computer Network Professionals 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 20 2 2633 Telecommunications Engineering Professionals 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 3122 Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 0 0 4 0 42 6 20 2 39 6 40 10 98 9 3123 Electrical Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 0 0 0 0 16 1 10 0 0 0 3 1 0 0 3124 Electronic Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 0 - 0 - 6 - 3 - 16 - 10 - 32 - 3132 Telecommunications Technical Specialists 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 3231 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 13 - 73 -

Total 0 0 22 3 80 10 48 2 92 11 124 15 311 - Source: NCVER, 2013, VOCSTATS, Apprentices and trainees.



Table 8: Apprentices Diploma/Advanced Diploma completions for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2006–12


mal

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mal

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mal

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1331 Construction Managers 0 0 8 0 6 0 2 1 2 0 2 0 5 0 2333 Electrical Engineers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 4 2 2613 Software and Applications Programmers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3122 Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 14 2 9 0 1 0 1 0 13 2 18 3 18 1 3123 Electrical Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 11 - 11 - 0 - 3124 Electronic Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 6 -

3132 Telecommunications Technical Specialists 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 3231 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 -

Total 14 2 17 0 7 0 3 1 26 2 33 4 34 3 Source: NCVER, 2013, VOCSTATS, Apprentices and trainees.



2.4 Existing skills shortages in engineering The Department of Employment undertakes ongoing research to identify skills shortages in the Australian labour market. The research is based on the Survey of employers who have recently advertised108 and a range of quantitative and qualitative data, as well as consultation with key industry and occupational associations. The available information suggests that skills shortages have eased considerably since 2012 and are not a key issue in the Australian labour market.

Table 9 provides information on certain ANZSCO six-digit occupation specialisations that the Department of Employment has identified as relevant for consideration. It is important to note that it does not include some of the engineering professional and engineering-related trade occupations on the Specialised Occupations List.109 In 2012–13, only five occupations were in shortage either nationally or regionally—Mining Engineers, Petroleum Engineers, Sheetmetal Trades Workers, Metal Fitters and Machinists, and Metal Machinists. With the exception of Metal Fitters and Machinists, these occupations have been in shortage for the past four to five years.

The Department of Employment’s skills shortage research data indicates that the labour market for engineering occupations is complex and shortages are significant in only a few occupations or in a few localised regions areas. 110 This is particularly apparent in the engineering-related trades, where shortages can be patchy and regionally significant.111

2.5 Conclusion Engineers are employed across a range of industries, with engineering skills vital for the efficient functioning of various areas of the economy. While globalisation creates challenges for industry and the engineering workforce, the national outlook for key industries that employ engineers is positive.

Employment levels for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades have grown notably over the past few years. The data show that the labour market has now eased, with significant skills shortages limited to a few occupations.

AWPA’s projections indicate that there will be increasing demand for engineering skills over the next five years. The majority of job openings will be due to employment growth rather than turnover.

108 Department of Employment, 2013, Survey of employers who have recently advertised. 109 Table 5 does not include ANZSCO 2334 Electronics Engineers, 2339 Other Engineering Professionals, 3124 Electronic Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians, 3221 Metal Casting, Forging and Finishing Trades Workers, and 3233 Precision Metal Trades Workers. 110 Department of Employment, 2013, Skill shortages Australia 2012–13, docs.employment.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/skillshortagesaustralia2013.pdf, accessed 18 June 2014, pp. 21–23. 111 Ibid.

48

Table 9: Skills shortages in engineering professional and engineering-related trade occupations, 2012–13

ANZSCO code Occupation Rating Years in shortage Engineering professionals

133111 Construction Project Managers No shortage 1 133211 Engineering Managers No shortage 3 233111 Chemical Engineers No shortage 1

2332 Civil Engineering Professionals (excluding Quantity Surveyors)

No shortage 4

233311 Electrical Engineers No shortage 4 233512 Mechanical Engineers No shortage 3 233611 Mining Engineers Shortage 5 233612 Petroleum Engineers Shortage 4

261311/12/13 Software and Applications Programmers No shortage 263111 Computer Network and Systems Engineers No shortage

2633 Telecommunications Engineering Professionals No shortage Engineering-related trades

3122 Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians No shortage 3 3123 Electrical Engineering Draftspersons and

Technicians No shortage 2

323111 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (Avionics) No shortage 2 323112 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (Mechanical) No shortage 1

3222 Sheetmetal Trades Workers Shortage 5 322311 Metal Fabricators No shortage 322313 Welders (First Class) No shortage

323211/12/13 Metal Fitters and Machinists (Fitters) Regional shortage 2 323214 Metal Machinists (First Class) Shortage 4 313211 Radiocommunications Technicians* No shortage 1

* Occupation has not been assessed continuously over the past five years. Source: Department of Employment, 2013, Skills shortages Australia 2012–13.

There is an increasing number of students studying for an engineering degree at university. While VET commencements fluctuated in the past, there was an overall increase in completions. However, completions remain low in higher level VET qualifications compared to Certificate III and IV. This supply will help to meet the demand, however it will need to be supplemented by skilled migration. The volume and impact of skilled migration will be discussed in Part Two, along with other key issues concerning the development, attraction, retention and utilisation of engineering skills.

49

Part Two: Development, attraction, retention and utilisation of engineering skills

50

Chapter Three: Issues affecting the skills pipeline into engineering

In this part of the report we examine the issues related to engineering skills demand and supply. These issues include the intermittency of demand for engineering workers due to peaks and troughs of work and the resulting difficulties in attracting and retaining skilled workers. Also relevant to the attraction of workers to the profession is the perception of engineers, the work they do and the lack of understanding of the broader social value of this work. In this section we also look at the role of the school system in developing the fundamental science, technology, engineering and maths skills that underpin engineering capability and the career advice and industry information that is critical to attracting young people to engineering as a career. We propose a number of recommendations to address these issues based on stakeholder feedback and AWPA consultations.

The skills pipeline into engineering includes skills supply from schools, VET engineering-related qualifications, higher education engineering degrees and skilled migration. Overall the supply of skills into engineering faces key challenges at every stage of the skills pipeline, including:

barriers to attracting students into engineering professional, trades and technical occupations enhancing the work-readiness of engineering graduates improving labour market outcomes for skilled migrants retaining existing skills in the workforce through improving the participation of women and mature-

aged engineering workers.

Central to the solution to many of these challenges is the relationship between the roles of industry and education and training providers. Industry-led change is vital to ensuring not just the quantity but also that the quality of engineering skills supply meets the needs of Australia’s engineering-related industries.

Research shows that in 2013 Australia had the lowest levels of firms collaborating on innovation with higher education partners when compared to OECD countries.112 Stakeholders are of the view that existing partnerships are ad hoc and there is no strategic approach across the sector to enable industry-education partnerships. Collaborative strategies for engineering skills development, where they do occur, are often responses to crises caused by periods of peak demand rather than being anticipatory in nature. It is therefore vital to focus on both the quantity and quality of engineering skills now in order to prevent a future crisis situation of skills supply when the cycle once again turns to peak demand.

3.1 Progressing the recommendations of this report In 2010 the Australian National Engineering Taskforce (ANET) was set up to address engineering skills shortages and to provide ‘a national strategy to develop Australia’s engineering workforce’. ANET was a pilot project that worked to develop the engineering workforce by bringing together key stakeholders in a

112 Bell J, 2014, ‘Innovation policy linked to productivity boost’, Focus 183, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, atse.org.au/Documents/Publications/Focus/2014/focus-183-technology-challenges.pdf, accessed 17 June 2014, p. 3–5.

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consultative process to ensure that Australia has continued to have access to the high-quality engineering skills that underpin a strong economy.

The members of ANET included Professionals Australia, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Engineers Australia, the Australian Council of Engineering Deans and Consult Australia which together represent professional, industrial, commercial and academic interests in the engineering sector. The membership of ANET was a recognition of the fact that if engineering skills issues are to be addressed, ‘all parties must work together collaboratively to create innovative systemic solutions’.113 Its aim was to provide ‘innovative and research-based solutions to longstanding issues [and] problems of demand and supply in the engineering sector’.114

AWPA proposes the setting up of a collaborative engineering working group, similar to ANET but with broader membership and remit, in order to progress the recommendations of this report. The stakeholder consultation process for this report benefited from the participation of trades-related organisations in addition to other relevant bodies. Therefore a similar breadth of membership could strengthen any future collaborative efforts related to the engineering workforce. AWPA suggests the working group be convened through the office of the Minster for Industry, the Hon Ian Macfarlane MP and facilitated by the Department of Industry.

Recommendation 1

a) That a collaborative engineering working group of relevant stakeholders be convened by the Minister for Industry to take forward the recommendations of the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency’s Engineering workforce study (with the exception of Recommendation 7a).

b) That the Australian Government Department of Industry provide facilitation support including funding and/or secretariat provision to this working group to take the recommendations forward.

3.2 Intermittency The demand for engineering professionals and engineering-related technicians and trades workers is generally cyclical, and varies depending on specialisation. Figure 9 and Figure 10 show the Department of Employment’s Internet Vacancy Index (IVI)115 for seven engineering professional occupations, and six engineering-related trades, at the four-digit ANZSCO level. These two figures show that some engineering occupations—both in the Professions and Technicians and Trades Workers groupings—experience fluctuating demand.

AWPA’s consultations for this study found that intermittency of engineering work is of key concern to stakeholders. A survey undertaken by Engineers Australia found the majority of members surveyed indicated ‘intermittency in infrastructure projects was detrimental to engineering employment and to

113 ANET, 2010, Scoping our future: addressing Australia’s engineering skills shortage, p. 3. 114 Ibid. 115 Based on a count of online vacancies newly lodged on SEEK, My Career, CareerOne and Australian JobSearch. The IVI is the only source of detailed data on online vacancies, including for around 350 occupations (at all skill levels), as well as for all states and territories and 38 regions. The following three charts show the IVI for engineering occupations.

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engineering careers’.116 In its draft report on Public Infrastructure the Productivity Commission has stated that ‘the intermittency of construction projects has been one of the most important drivers of skills shortages in infrastructure construction’.117 In peak periods it can result in a shortage of skilled engineers and in periods of low demand it can seriously impede job opportunities or lead to redundancies. It can significantly impact on retention of engineering workers in engineering occupations and on commitment to investing in training by employers, resulting in a focus on hiring people who need none or minimal amounts of training—those who can ‘hit the ground running’—which in turn creates a demand for increased specialisation.118 Thus intermittency reduces the depth of experience in the engineering workforce due to the attrition of staff with significant industry experience.119 All of these factors can detract from the attractiveness of engineering as a career.

116 Engineers Australia, 2013, Public infrastructure: government reference to the Productivity Commission, engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/government_reference_to_the_productivity_commission_december_2013.pdf, accessed 24 June 2014, p. 9. 117 Productivity Commission, 2014, Public infrastructure, draft report volume 1, pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/134674/infrastructure-draft-volume1.pdf, accessed 11 June 2014, p. 29. 118 Productivity Commission, 2014, Public infrastructure, draft report volume 2, pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/134676/infrastructure-draft-volume2.pdf, accessed 11 June 2014, p. 484. 119 Ibid., p. 461.

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Figure 9: Internet Vacancy Index for engineering professionals (March 2006 = 100)

Source: Department of Employment, Internet Vacancy Index.

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Figure 10: Internet Vacancy Index for engineering-related trades (March 2006=100)

Source: Department of Employment, Internet Vacancy Index.

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As Engineers Australia states:

Engineers invest long periods of their lives in education and training, up to seven or eight years, and this is followed by an obligation to undertake continuous professional development to keep up with technological developments in their field. Few engineers would regard intermittent employment as a sufficient return on this investment. Faced with a period of unemployment due to project delays, engineers do what all rational people do, find work in other areas commensurate with transferable skills and abilities. The consequences are the loss of experienced engineers and these eventually need to be replaced, incurring additional costs. In addition to these immediate impacts, the disruption to engineering careers creates disincentives for young people to choose engineering careers.120

The Australian Government Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development’s National Infrastructure Construction Schedule (NICS) is a collaborative effort between the Commonwealth, state, territory and local governments to provide an online project pipeline of all infrastructure projects over $50 million procured by the general government sector.121 The NICS also contains information on tender opportunities within a project for contracts estimated to be worth more than $25 million and planning and feasibility studies currently being undertaken by governments.122 Local Government projects are provided voluntarily by those authorities, whereas the information for each state and the Commonwealth is provided in line with their annual budgets.123 The NICS is updated within a week of new project announcements and its main aim is to assist industry with long-term planning.124 It does not provide details of any private-sector infrastructure projects, or make mandatory local government infrastructure projects. For these reasons, some stakeholders at AWPA’s roundtable meeting indicated that the NICS as it currently stands is not particularly effective in assisting in long-term workforce planning.

While some level of intermittency is inevitable, especially in sectors such as infrastructure, the Productivity Commission’s draft report proposed ‘a package of measures’ the adoption of which, it argued, could address the issue of a ‘pipeline’ to ‘assist purchasers and tenderers in forward planning’.125 The ‘package of measures’ includes the reform of governance and institutional arrangements surrounding procurement and imposing greater transparency around proposed government supported projects in advance of government funding decisions.126 Improving the management and coordination of projects would facilitate planning of workforce demand, enhance the provision of incentives for training and help smooth the peaks and troughs of large construction work.127 The Productivity Commission also proposed improving and continuing the

120 Engineers Australia, 2014, Public Infrastructure: response to the productivity commission draft report, pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/135249/subdr123-infrastructure.pdf, accessed 24 June 2014, p. 2. 121 National Infrastructure Construction Schedule, 2014, About NICS, Department of Infrastructure, nics.gov.au/Home/About, accessed 10 June 2014. 122 Ibid. 123 Ibid. 124 Ibid. 125 Productivity Commission, 2014, Public infrastructure, draft report volume 1, p. 233. 126 Ibid. 127 Ibid., p. 232.

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existing work of the NICS.128 The commission noted that whilst there were multiple published project pipelines for government funded projects, there was no clear single organisation framework for collecting and disseminating information about a pipeline of projects, particularly in regards to incorporating private as well as government projects. Through its draft report, the Productivity Commission sought views on ‘the appropriate organisational framework to collect and disseminate information about a pipeline of projects and the extent to which private organisations should provide information about their plans to build significant infrastructure’.129

AWPA notes there has been a mixed response to the commission’s recommendations, with some stakeholders such as Engineers Australia stating that they did not go far enough to tackle the problem of project intermittency.130 The commission provided its final report to the Australian Government on 27 May 2014 and we understand the Australian Government is currently considering its response.

3.3 Registration of engineers Registration of engineers is not mandatory in Australia (except in Queensland) and currently there are two voluntary, self-regulated systems. Some stakeholders have called for a nationally-consistent system of regulation across all jurisdictions. Lack of mandated licensing of engineers has been cited as contributing to several issues, including limiting the mobility of engineers across various jurisdictions and perceptions of the low status of engineers. For example, focus group consultations undertaken on behalf of AWPA for this report found that participants thought engineers were not held in high esteem in society. They attributed this to the lack of protection accorded to the title of engineer:

Anyone can call themselves an engineer ... so they can make their job sound sexy, but it just makes the public more confused.131

At the same time, it has also been noted that registration poses some challenges in terms of cost and duration—in Queensland it requires 3–4 years of experience and then 3–4 years for completion of the registration process followed by ongoing audits and professional development requirements.

The Productivity Commission’s draft report on public infrastructure noted there are a number of aspects behind reports of poor practices in engineering, including inappropriate management practices such as unethical signing-off on work unseen.132 The report concluded that registration may not address these issues and that ‘further evidence would be required to conclude that mandatory registration has benefited Queensland and would benefit other jurisdictions’.133

128 Productivity Commission, 2014, Public infrastructure, draft report volume 1, p. 232. 129 Productivity Commission, 2014, Public infrastructure, draft report volume 1, p. 233. 130 Engineers Australia, 2014, Public Infrastructure: response to the productivity commission draft report, pp. 1–3. 131 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 132 Productivity Commission, 2014, Public infrastructure, draft report volume 2, p. 493. 133 Ibid.

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This view has been challenged by stakeholders such as Engineers Australia for a range of reasons such as:

the importance of a nationally-consistent registration scheme that would enable mobility of engineering skills between different jurisdictions and also assist with assessing the competence of migrant engineers

provision of a framework for workforce planning and to ensure adherence to a code of ethics so that engineering knowledge is appropriately utilised in project management

mitigation of the costs of flawed engineering decisions by ensuring the competence and commitment of engineering skills

alignment of engineering with other professions which require licencing.134

AWPA notes that the Senate inquiry into engineering skills recommended that ‘the government continues to work with the states and territories through the Council of Australian Governments to make a national registration scheme for engineers a priority area for reform over the next decade’.135 AWPA understands that the Australian Government response to this report is forthcoming.

3.4 Perceptions of engineering and status of engineering careers The status of engineering as a profession and poor perceptions of engineering careers have been problematic in most western economies. This is attributed to a number of factors, including the lack of understanding about engineering as a career and the inability of the engineering profession to sell the value of its work and social contribution. Professor Trevelyan has also stated that often there is a disconnect between engineering as a practice and as a study in university degrees.136

Highlighting the social impact of engineering work is a critical factor in attracting students to engineering. In a survey of approximately 160 students across Australia, the Australian Power Institute found the following motivators for students to undertake engineering study:

make a difference (a large proportion of students want to contribute to addressing climate change challenges and achieving a low carbon future)

be in demand (students are attracted to an industry which has good employment prospects) reap the rewards (students are attracted to a good salary along with a good work-life balance) be challenged (students want to be involved in interesting, challenging studies which they can relate to

the real world).137

In response to these findings the website powerengineering.org was set up to attract students into power engineering. The site incorporates information about all four of the above motivators. For example, under the ‘make a difference section’ it highlights the role of power engineering in the development of renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency initiatives and systems to reduce greenhouse impacts. It also focuses on the social impact of these studies by stating:

134 Engineers Australia, 2014, Public Infrastructure: response to the productivity commission draft report, pp. 3–4. 135 Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee, 2012, The shortage of engineering and related employment skills, p. viii. 136 Trevelyan J, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 137 Australian Power Institute (API), submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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http://www.powerengineering.org/

By becoming a power engineer, you can champion change and help the electricity industry control greenhouse gases and develop sustainable energy solutions to help us maintain our lifestyles now and into the future.138

The Australian Council of Engineering Deans noted that students see engineering as ‘science-based purposeful problem solving’ that ‘can make a difference’.139 The social impact of engineering work is also a key factor in attracting women into engineering—for example there is near parity in relation to the participation of women in engineering disciplines where this is self-evident such as chemical, biomedical, environmental and renewable energy.140

The wage levels in engineering are also perceived as contributing to the lack of attractiveness of engineering careers. Table 19 (see Appendix E) shows the median full-time earning for engineering occupations from 2007–12. It highlights that engineering professionals’ median weekly full-time earnings were higher than the all occupations and all Professionals average. Mining Engineers, Chemical and Mineral Engineers, Other Engineering Professionals and Telecommunication Engineering Professionals experienced marked rises and decreases in their wages over the period. During the same period, the range of median weekly earnings for each engineering-related trade occupation was less stable than that of the engineering professionals. This could reflect the fact that employment for trade workers and technicians is more susceptible to the ebb and flows of engineering construction work.

Professor Trevelyan states that while graduate salaries in engineering are competitive, ‘compared to other professions, engineers are relatively poorly remunerated for a given number of years of experience’.141 Engineers Australia also supports this view and state that ‘engineering remuneration has not consistently kept up across all responsibility levels.’ 142 This could result in engineers being attracted to other occupations which ‘offer attractive propositions to well qualified analytical problem-solvers’.143 However, other stakeholders such as the Australian Council for Engineering Deans note median engineering salaries in Australia reached some of the highest levels in the world during the period of skills shortages in engineering.144

The poor perception of engineering as a career, while shared by many western economies, is not a universal feature. For example, in India, the greater participation of women in engineering has been partly driven by the high status of engineering as a profession.145 AWPA’s focus group consultations also found that participants from cultural backgrounds such as Indian, Iranian or Chinese did not share the view about the low status of engineering professions.

138 Power Engineering, 2014, Make a difference, powerengineering.org.au/MakeaDifference/tabid/58/Default.aspx, accessed 17 June 2014. 139 ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 140 Ibid. 141 Trevelyan J, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 142 Engineers Australia, submission to AWPA 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 143 Ibid. 144 ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 145 Discussed further in Chapter Five.

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Other barriers to the attractiveness of engineering careers to potential workers include the intermittency of engineering work and the consequent challenges to having stable careers in engineering, and issues around registration of engineering qualifications.

3.5 The role of the school system in the skills pipeline into engineering Engineering-related studies and occupations rely on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills which are developed at school levels. Building STEM skills is critical for Australia’s national productivity and global competitiveness and these skills are particularly essential to building the next generation of engineering workers and engineering skills.146 The low participation of secondary school students in STEM subjects is thus of concern to engineering-related industries as low levels of student engagement with advanced mathematics and sciences restrict the numbers of students with STEM skills that can articulate into tertiary education courses such as engineering. The importance of occupations that require STEM skills is growing—in Australia, between 2006 and 2011, the total number of people (both with and without STEM qualifications) employed in the 10 most common STEM occupations at both professional and technical occupational levels grew by 14 per cent. This was greater than the 9 per cent growth across all other occupation groups.147 The performance of Australian students in secondary mathematics and sciences therefore has implications for the potential skills pipeline into engineering occupations.

The performance in mathematics is declining and student performance in science has remained static.148 Enrolments for advanced and intermediate mathematics and science courses among senior secondary students have also declined.149 The number of Year 12 students studying advanced mathematics dropped below 10 per cent in 2011.150 Enrolments in intermediate mathematics were also down marginally from 19.9 per cent in 2010 to 19.8 per cent in 2011.151 Intermediate and advanced mathematics are considered important for engineering tertiary study.152 Overall, there has been only a 3 per cent growth in students undertaking some mathematical studies between 1995 and 2012, with most of this due to a substantial increase in students undertaking elementary mathematics in that period. Figures for enrolments in science-related subjects in secondary schools show similar downward trends: in 2010, only half of the total number of students enrolled for science-related subjects in Year 12.153

An additional issue is the low numbers of girls participating in mathematics and science subjects at secondary school, largely due to poor self-perception about their proficiency in these subjects when

146 Australian Industry Group, 2012, Lifting our science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills, p. 1. 147 ABS, 2014, Perspectives on education and training: Australians with qualifications in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), 2010–11, cat. no. 4250.0.55.005. 148 Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI), 2013, Discipline profile of the mathematical sciences 2013, amsi.org.au/images/stories/downloads/pdfs/general-outreach/Discipline_profile_2013.pdf, accessed 26 June 2014, p. 4; OECD, 2013, 2012 PISA results in focus: what 15-year-olds know and what they can do with what they know, oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-overview.pdf, accessed 26 June 2014, p. 8. 149 AMSI, 2013, Discipline profile of the mathematical sciences 2013, pp. 4–6. 150 Ibid, p. 6. 151 Ibid. 152 Engineers Australia, 2013, The engineering profession: a statistical overview, p. 21. 153 Australian Academy of Science, 2011, The status and quality of Year 11 and 12 science in Australian schools, science.org.au/reports/documents/Year-1112-Report-Final.pdf, accessed 26 June 2014, p. 10.

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compared to boys with similar grades.154 The proportion of female students undertaking mathematics and science subjects in Years 11 and 12 in New South Wales fell from 16.8 per cent in 2001 to 13.8 per cent in 2011. This mirrors the trend in Victoria where, over an 18–year period to 2012, there was a 40 per cent decline in the number of girls studying physics in Year 10.155

NCVER found that many of the barriers to the participation of girls in STEM education and STEM careers arise from culture and gender stereotypes.156 In secondary schools, of the students drawn to science careers, boys are four times more likely than girls to be attracted to occupations related to physical sciences subjects such as physics, mathematics, engineering and computing, while occupations related to life sciences subjects appealed to twice as many girls as boys.157 Early career choices about science-related occupations have positive influences on student selection of science-related subjects in Year 12; however, this situation is also gendered.158 The likelihood of girls studying physical sciences subjects is just 58 per cent of that of the likelihood of boys studying the same subjects, while the likelihood of girls studying life sciences subjects is 43 per cent higher than the likelihood of boys choosing those subjects.159 The research attributes the gendered nature of participation to ‘powerful and widely shared gender stereotypes’ entrenched outside school settings.160

Reportedly, one of the key reasons students are not attracted to science and mathematics at the secondary school level is the way these subjects are taught.161 The number of suitably qualified mathematics teachers has been declining. For example, the number of teachers with at least three years of relevant tertiary education in the field declined for Years 11 and 12 from 68 per cent in 2007 to 64.1 per cent in 2010.162 For Years 7 to 10, this figure declined from 53 per cent in 2007 to 45.8 per cent in 2010.163 Students’ lack of adequate exposure to skilled teachers at critical decision-making points is a barrier to their take-up of STEM studies.164 Stakeholder studies have underlined the importance of teacher training, including exposure to industry-related work, as a way of upskilling teachers of STEM-related subjects.165Student engagement in STEM subjects can be enhanced through teaching styles that include student-led research, practical activities and real world examples.166 Survey results found that ‘although the vast majority of students

154 VanLeuvan P, 2004, ‘Young women’s science/mathematics career goals from seventh grade to high school graduation’, The Journal of Educational Research 97, p. 248, cited in ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 155 Australian Institute of Physics (Victorian Branch) Education Committee, 2014, Student numbers: from Year 10 science to Units 1 & 2 to Units 3 & 4—how do you compare?, vicphysics.org, accessed 16 January 2014. 156 Sikora J, 2014, Gendered pathways into the post-secondary study of science. 157 Ibid. 158 Ibid, p. 19. 159 Ibid., pp. 16–17. 160 Ibid., p. 19. 161 Office of the Chief Scientist, 2012, Health of Australian science, p. 10. 162 AMSI, 2013, Discipline profile of the mathematical sciences 2013, pp. 7–8. 163 Ibid. 164 Butler E, Clarke K and Simon L, 2014, Hard hats, robots and lab coats: broadening the career options of young women, Women in Adult and Vocational Education, wave.org.au/jupgrade/images/stories/Documents/WAVE_eS4W_HardHats_CareerReportFinal.pdf, accessed 30 June 2014, p. 32. 165 ANET, 2012, Realising an innovation economy, p. 28. 166 Office of the Chief Scientist, 2012, Health of Australian science, p. 51.

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acknowledge that mathematics is important to their future, they do not regard the subject as fun or interesting’.167

The Office of the Chief Scientist has focused significant research on the engagement of school students with STEM subjects through the STEM Industry and Education Advisory Group. 168 The terms of reference of this group includes the task of advising the Chief Scientist on ‘the means to a strategic framework for building a broad, high-quality STEM base in the Australian workforce and community’ and ‘a plan to achieve best practice in STEM education in Australia’.169 In 2013, the Office of the Chief Scientist prepared a position paper, Science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the national interest: a strategic approach, which outlined a number of strategies to improve Australia’s STEM skills.170 These included actions for schools, post–compulsory education providers, the workforce and the broader community and also industry-based STEM training and partnerships between employers and education providers.171 The office has also developed the role of National Adviser for Mathematics and Science Education and Industry which advises the Chief Scientist on all matters relating to STEM education.172

3.6 Developing effective careers advice to attract students into engineering careers The majority of students’ decisions about future studies and careers are made in the school environment, highlighting the important role of career advice and counselling in schools to promote pathways into engineering studies and careers. A survey of school career counsellors found that 83 per cent of them concurred with the view that school students are inadequately informed about engineering as a profession.173 The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering’s submission to the Engineering workforce issues paper highlighted an uncoordinated and competitive approach by industry to providing information to school counsellors. 174

There is a perception among industry bodies that students are not sufficiently informed about engineering as a course of study and as a profession. Research into young people’s attitudes towards engineering reveals many misconceptions, including that English, rather than science or mathematics, is an enabling subject for engineering studies. There appears to be ‘a lack of awareness of the range of roles that engineers perform, and a perception of the profession built around construction’, and engineering is not seen to be an ‘exciting’ career, especially among girls.175 NCVER research has underlined the need for

167 Victorian Auditor-General’s Office, 2012, Survey of Year 6 and Year 9 students, cited in Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute, 2013, Discipline profile of the mathematical sciences 2013, p. 7. 168 Office of the Chief Scientist, 2013, Terms of reference—Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Industry and Education Advisory Group, chiefscientist.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/Terms-of-reference_STEM-advisory-group.pdf, accessed 10 January 2014. 169 Ibid. 170 Office of the Chief Scientist, 2013, Science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the national interest: a strategic approach, chiefscientist.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/STEMstrategy290713FINALweb.pdf, accessed 2 June 2014. 171 Ibid., p. 13. 172 Office of the Chief Scientist, 2013, National Adviser for Mathematics and Science Education and Industry, http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/2014/05/national-adviser-for-mathematics-and-science-education-and-industry/, accessed 30 June 2014. 173 ANET, 2012, Realising an innovation economy, p. 27. 174 Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 175 ANET, 2012, Realising an innovation economy, p. 26.

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http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/2014/05/national-adviser-for-mathematics-and-science-education-and-industry/

targeted career promotion strategies that actively challenge and transform entrenched stereotypes, both in terms of gender as well as in preconceptions about engineering careers. 176

AWPA’s focus group consultations with secondary school students found that role models are influential in shaping students’ career choices. Most students reported they had friends and family members who worked in engineering occupations. Hands-on practical experience was also a strong motivator for students to take up engineering studies and, those exposed to pre-apprenticeship programs at school had a distinct advantage (this is discussed in more detail in the next section). Students also expressed interest in understanding the practical application of subjects such as mathematics.

The focus group consultations also found that school students were relatively well aware of engineering and understood the wide variety of engineering roles. However, these were students who were already studying STEM-related subjects and had a pre-existing interest in engineering careers through family members who were engineers and through participation in programs at school. They also understood the link between engineering and subjects such as physics and mathematics and connected engineering with concepts such as design, building, problem-solving, practical and real-world thus highlighting aspects of engineering careers that are attractive to them.

Nearly every job in some way you can use an engineer. Even if it’s got to do with food I am pretty sure, like chemical engineering and stuff, they would need it there—so anywhere, really.177

In relation to career counselling and career promotion, students reported that websites of educational providers were confusing and not clear about employment pathways in engineering:

When they say what the course is about, they don’t actually tell you the job that it leads to, and it doesn’t tell you what the job itself [is], what you have to do and what it entails. It just gives you what you’re going to learn in the course and what your requirements are, so it’s kind of robotic and monotonous. Impersonal.178

School counselling approaches were reported to be ad hoc or insufficient, and most students relied on individual efforts to find information about engineering. Students reported going to university open days, engineering firm engagements at careers fairs, and participating in industry outreach and exposure programs and camps, many of which had a practical, hands-on focus. They also asked for information about engineering roles to be framed in more attractive and inspiring ways than is being done currently.

176 Sikora J, 2014, Gendered pathways into the post-secondary study of science. 177 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 178 Ibid.

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Perceptions about engineering being a male-dominated profession were also highlighted as a barrier:

Engineering courses at least from what I’ve heard have a lot of stereotypes around them, so if they could advertise them a bit better they might be more appealing. From what my friends told me at least, both of them are doing engineering courses and they both told me that 90 per cent of the people are male and out of 180 guys, there’s like one girl there. So it’s kind of awkward like that.179

The results of the focus groups conducted suggested the following approaches could be explored or more widely implemented:

better access and referral to information on the engineering job market and graduate earning targeted presentations—possibly presented by an experienced engineer—which connect the learning

experiences in the school curriculum with engineering jobs promotion of role models who represent the diversity of the population to assist with breaking down

stereotypes of the engineering workforce involvement of students in ‘real life’ problem-solving tasks relating to engineering.

Several programs are focussed on addressing perceptions of engineering and informing school students about career and study options in engineering:

Engineers Australia’s Make It So campaign The website EngQuest The Engineering Link Group’s programs for teachers and students Robogals, an international, student-run organisation that aims to increase female participation in

engineering, science and technology The Re-Engineering Australia Foundation The Science and Technology Education Leveraging Relevance (STELR) project (see case study below) 2realise’s Industry Bites program (see case study below).

179 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 64

Promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics at school level: Science and Technology Education Leveraging Relevance (STELR) program

STELR is a national secondary school science education initiative of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, developed to address the decreasing number of students choosing to further their studies in science and mathematics. STELR is a hands-on, inquiry-based program that operates within the intermediate (Years 9 and 10) science curriculum. A range of directed and student-designed practical investigations, focused on the theme of global warming and renewable energy, are an integral part of the program. All students at the year level participate in the program, not just selected students.

STELR offers three curricula to meet the needs of schools across Australia: the Core Curriculum, a 6–10 week physical sciences program for students in Year 9, including experiments on electrical circuits, wind turbines and solar cells; the Integrated Curriculum, a 10–12 week program for Year 9 students integrating physical and chemical sciences and extending on the Core Curriculum; and the Chemistry Curriculum, 5–6 week chemistry program designed for Year 9 or Year 10 students.

The inquiry-based learning in the STELR program has had several benefits as identified by the teachers involved. These include an increase in the level of students’ engagement with the material and understanding connections between the material and the real world, raising awareness of opportunities in technology-related careers to increase the number of students choosing science and engineering careers and improving the quality of the teaching of science in the classroom.

STELR uses Australian designed and manufactured equipment and can be delivered through the web-based iSTELR. New modules on Sustainable Housing and Space Science have been developed and will be released for semester 2.

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Industry Bites is another project designed to provide information to students, teachers and career counsellors through real-life experiences in workplaces.

Industry visits to engage young people in STEM subjects: Industry Bites

Industry Bite visits (Industry Bites) are run by the organisation 2realise and are designed to engage young people by providing them with insights into different career options through an industry visit concept.

These sessions are designed with a strategic purpose to help young people, teachers, principals and careers advisers to experience and better understand post-school options by providing information about meaningful real life experiences in the workplace. They provide a behind-the-scenes view of what takes place in a business particularly in a head office environment. This provides alternative ideas and options around career pathways, training and education alternatives which help young people in planning their next steps after school. It is hoped the visits inspire and motivate students to ask questions, have conversations and try other opportunities to assist them in making decisions about their chosen careers.

Industry Bites introduces young people to various industries and, in 2014, has had a particular focus on STEM-related career options as illustrated by the examples below:

Engineering

Thales Group and Roads and Maritime Services participate in Industry Bites to showcase trade, technical and engineering career pathways within their business. These visits are aimed at students with strong problem-solving skills.

Science

Johnson & Johnson Pacific Pty Ltd participate in Industry Bites to showcase the various career paths available within pharmaceuticals. The Stephen Sanig Research Institute participate in Industry Bites to showcase the career paths available within research and educate students on the complex processes involved in designing, implementing and reporting on research projects.

In 2013, 389 students participated in an Industry Bite visits. Of these students, 96 per cent said that they would like to attend another Industry Bite visit, and 92 per cent said that the visit influenced their decisions about working for specific companies and industries.

Other companies that use Industry Bites to attract young people to their industry include Microsoft; GM Holden Ltd; The Concourse; Radisson Blu Sydney; Alpine Offset Printing; Castle Hill Police; McDonalds Australia and Woolworths Ltd.

This partnership initiative is supported by the Australian Government's School Business Community Partnership Brokers (Partnership Brokers) program which is funded until December 2014.

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There is currently no coordinated national approach to STEM. A systematic approach is required to ensure maximum return. It is important to understand how these programs and initiatives contribute to the needs of Australians, and to ensure their cumulative effect will build long-term prosperity.180 Additionally in AWPA’s focus group consultations, the participants noted that these programs are usually not linked to school career counselling initiatives. 181 Career counselling efforts may therefore not be capturing the students who are interested in and good at STEM subjects, and offering pathways beyond the typical ones such as medicine.182

The Australian Government’s National Career Development Strategy,183 which provides funding to a number of initiatives involved in careers development and counselling, includes the Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools program, supported by the Department of Education through the Maths and Science Participation program and the Making Career Connections initiative managed by the CSIRO. The Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools program creates partnerships between research scientists, engineers, postgraduate science and engineering students and professionals working in applied sciences with teachers in over 1,100 schools across the country.184

Along with the National Career Development Strategy, the Australian Government also supports the provision of nationally consistent career information through portals such as myfuture185 and the Job Guide,186 for use by students and careers practitioners in schools. The myfuture website connects school students with industry representatives and includes information for parents to help them guide their child’s career choices.

The initiatives by the Office of the Chief Scientist discussed previously reflect expert findings that a ‘multi-faceted approach to stimulate dialogue’187 between industry, the education sector and government is required to tackle the challenge. This is especially the case as many students form life aspirations before the age of 14. These are transferred into career choices in secondary school, and are influenced by a range of factors.188 Intervention must therefore be broad-based and multipronged in order to influence these choices.

180 Office of the Chief Scientist, 2013, Science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the national Interest: A strategic approach, p. 10. 181 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 182 Ibid. 183 Department of Education, 2014, National Career Development Strategy, education.gov.au/national-career-development-strategy, accessed 16 January 2014. 184 Scientists in Schools, 2012, Evaluation of the Scientists in Schools Project 2011–2012, scientistsinschools.edu.au/downloads/SiSEvaluationReport2011-2012.pdf, accessed 4 June 2014. 185 Department of Education, 2013, Re-launched national online career information service myfuture, education.gov.au/news/re-launched-national-online-career-information-service-myfuture, accessed 4 June 2014. 186 Department of Education, 2014, Job Guide, jobguide.thegoodguides.com.au, accessed 30 June 2014. 187 The Warren Centre, 2014, Engineering skills and education, thewarrencentre.org.au/engineering-skills-education, accessed 10 January 2014. 188 Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2008, Opening up pathways: engagement in STEM across the primary—secondary school transition, dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30028761/williams-openingup-2008.pdf, accessed 26 June 2014, p. viii.

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Encouraging more secondary school children to study STEM subjects so they can be equipped to go on to study engineering and pursue engineering careers is imperative if we are to increase the domestic supply of engineering workers in Australia. The existing strategies initiated by the Office of the Chief Scientist could provide opportunities for the proposed engineering working group to support this ongoing work.

Recommendation 2

That members of the engineering working group work with the Office of the Chief Scientist in its ongoing engagement with industry to promote science, technology, maths and engineering-related careers and studies at school levels.

3.7 Conclusion Promoting engineering careers and engineering study as being vital to Australia’s ongoing prosperity is essential in attracting students to engineering careers. The overall decline in participation in STEM subjects at school levels affects the skills pipeline into engineering tertiary education. A range of initiatives are already in place to enhance STEM skills in Australia and engineering will benefit from the outcomes of these strategies. Engineering stakeholders have the potential to be part of these initiatives and ensure that the role and value of engineering skills to Australia is articulated in inspiring ways to capture the imagination of Australian school students.

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Chapter Four: Ensuring the supply of high-quality engineering skills from tertiary education and skilled migration

In 2012, the Australian Government introduced the ‘demand driven’ system for higher education which allowed universities to respond to student demand. As noted in a recent review of this policy, the equivalent of 577,000 full-time students received Commonwealth support in paying their tuition costs in 2013, an increase of more than 100,000 on 2009.189 Importantly, the demand-driven system and associated reforms have delivered numerous benefits to engineering, including by increasing higher education opportunities for Indigenous Australians and for people from regional and remote areas.190

Further research by the Grattan Institute found that the increase in demand for university placements as a result of switching to the demand-driven funding model was centred almost entirely in three disciplines: health, science and engineering. As the Grattan Institute notes, both offers and applications increased significantly in these broad disciplines; while offers rose by 10 per cent for all other disciplines, there was no corresponding increase in applications. This increase in offers ‘reduced previous unmet demand’—particularly for science and engineering courses.191

Maintaining and boosting the quality and quantity of the engineering skills pipeline from tertiary education relies, like the skills pipeline from schools, on integrated, partnership approaches between relevant stakeholders. The capacity of Australia’s workforce to be innovative is reliant on equipping ‘science and engineering graduates for innovation and leadership’. This could be enabled by:

enhancing practice-based training in university courses to develop ability to define a problem and communicate a solution and opportunities to work on real industry problems and/or in interdisciplinary teams.192

Internship, work experience opportunities and mentoring are essential enablers of in-demand skills of the future which can be facilitated by industry-education partnerships.193

The importance of practical, industry-relevant and current engineering experience is pertinent not just to create work-ready graduates for industry but also to promote engineering careers and to transform engineering curricula. Participants at AWPA’s engineering roundtable in May 2014 highlighted a number of issues in relation to partnerships between industry and education providers. Industry—university partnerships are critical sites to address several skills and participation issues. In addition, stakeholders

189 Kemp D and Norton A, 2014, Review of the demand-driven funding system, docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/review_of_the_demand_driven_funding_system_report_for_the_website.pdf, p. ix. 190 Ibid., p. xiii. 191 Norton A, 2013, Keep the caps off: student access and choice in higher education, The Grattan Institute, grattan.edu.au/static/files/assets/205fbc0e/195-Keep-the-caps-off.pdf, p. 15–16 192 Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA), 2014, The role of science, research and technology in lifting Australian productivity, acola.org.au/PDF/SAF04Reports/SAF04%20Role%20of%20SRT%20in%20lifting%20Aus%20Productivity%20FINAL%20REPORT.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014, p. 101. 193 Ibid., p. 101.

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stated that there was a need for engineering education to provide greater differentiation than it does currently.

This chapter sets out the emerging skills of the future in engineering and examines tertiary education pathways into engineering in relation to both the current and future skills needs of the engineering workforce.

4.1 Engineering skills needs of the future The driver of engineering skills of the future will be ‘new business models’ which adopt a ‘service-based, through-life model that is customer-oriented and underpinned by technology and innovation’.194 Areas of technological challenges of the future which will drive demand for engineering skills include innovation and productivity, energy, health, agriculture, natural resource management, infrastructure, technological developments in the power system architecture and transitioning to a low carbon economy.195 Demands from mining and the energy (including shale gas) industries will also be drivers of future engineering skills.196 In addition, in order to retain the ‘smart jobs’ in the Manufacturing sector related to innovation, research and design, skills to support high-end, advanced manufacturing will also be required.197 The globalisation of the engineering-related industries (as discussed in Part One) creates a demand for international business skills including cross-cultural capabilities. The in-demand skills of the future in engineering will thus require both a depth of specialist knowledge and skills as well as the ability to work in a cross-disciplinary way across diverse knowledge areas.

In-demand engineering skills of the future Stakeholder submissions to this study stated that engineering skills related to large-scale infrastructure and resources projects and that roles in planned roads and tunnel projects will be the in-demand skills of the future. Consult Australia notes that,

mega projects are complex and require the intersection of private sector, government and the community at scales rarely seen before. Managing such projects takes a special skill set.198

Some of the large projects in Australia reportedly found it difficult to source skills in both trades and ‘high-end scientific, design and other technical consultancy services’.199 The Recruitment and Consulting Services Association Australia stated that the roles that are difficult to source include those of Mid-Level Planner, Project Controller, Field Engineer, Distribution Engineer and Draftspersons and specialist automotive design skills.200 Consult Australia noted that the roles of construction project manager and engineering manager are also difficult to source.201

194 Manufacturing Skills Australia (MSA), submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 195 ATSE and API, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 196 ATSE, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 197 Professionals Australia (PA), submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 198 Consult Australia (CA), submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 199 Ibid. 200 Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RCSA), submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 201 CA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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In addition, the Australian Power Institute also identified skills needed in the future as project management, design and development system planning, intelligent networks and protection, and renewable and alternate technologies.202 In the automotive sector, engineering design will be an in-demand skill.203 Professionals Australia states that ‘smart jobs in innovation, research and design enable productivity growth, a diverse economy and the maintenance of a high-wage, high-skill industry in Australia’, thereby emulating the innovation economies of Northern Europe.204

Identifying and strengthening practical or project management skills in engineering Increasingly, a group of capabilities which include ‘informal leadership skills in a technical context’ has been identified as critical to engineering roles.205 As interdisciplinary training and systems are key skills of the future, engineering training will have to include cultural awareness, industrial relations information and understanding of a social licence to operate.206

Professor Trevelyan notes that technical collaboration skills are more complex than communication skills and research indicates that these typically comprise up to 80 per cent of the work of engineers.207 Research also indicates that ‘in engineering, the social and technical are intertwined, inseparable realities of practice’.208

Professor Trevelyan argues that categorising these skills as ‘non-technical’, and not identifying them as integral to technical collaboration capabilities, are barriers to graduates recognising and acquiring the requisite skills to enhance their employability.209 Lack of recognition of these skills also makes it hard for companies to identify and source technical collaboration capabilities.210 Furthermore, categorising them as non-technical creates an artificial hierarchy of skills which is not borne out by employer demand patterns.

The Australian Council of Engineering Deans notes that in 2009 skills of the future in engineering were identified as communication, working in diverse teams, self-management, professionalism, creativity/problem-solving, management/leadership, business skills, practical engineering, innovation, contextual responsibilities, and applying technical theory. The council states that these skills are already taught in the globally-accredited engineering courses, including in Australia, thus ensuring that engineering graduates ‘have at least a threshold level of engineering knowledge and skills and applications ability in a define branch of engineering, contextual knowledge, and personal and professional attributes appropriate for commencement of supervised practice’.211

202 API, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 203 RCSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 204 PA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 205 Trevelyan J, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 206 ATSE, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 207 Trevelyan J, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 208 Trevelyan J, The making of an expert engineer, unpublished manuscript. 209 Ibid. 210 Trevelyan J, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 211 ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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In addition, engineering degrees of the future will ‘spin out new and interdisciplinary areas (such as engineering with nanotechnology materials)’.212 Expansion of the ‘contextual dimensions’ of engineering will create ‘increased needs for interdisciplinary studies’ in engineering with business and human sciences to support sectors such as health, advanced manufacturing, energy and water. Future national and international pressures may also require a Masters degree as the base qualification for professional engineering.213

Training for engineering skills of the future Given that universities are not generally geared to deliver quick responses to short-term industry needs, engineering enterprises address specific skills needs through in-house training. The Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering observes that Australia provides many ‘vigorous, market-driven’ short courses in areas such as project management, maintenance management and process automation.214 In the resources sector the Minerals Tertiary Education Council, an industry–education collaborative partnership set up by the Minerals Council of Australia, aims to advocate and streamline courses and programs in mining engineering, metallurgy and minerals geoscience to secure supply of qualified Earth Scientists, Mining Engineers and Metallurgists to the industry.215 The Australian Power Institute offers a continuing professional development program for engineers with 5–15 years’ experience which includes work exchanges, summer school and technical workshops.216

Graduate programs provide skills not necessarily gained at undergraduate levels in areas such as business acumen and large scale systems integration and optimisation. The John Grill School of Project Leadership at the University of Sydney has been cited as an example of businesses recognising the importance of these skills for both engineers and business graduates.217

Consult Australia recommends the continued development of core engineering skills through a coordinated education system with enhanced ‘focus on project management skills’ to ensure engineers are skilled ‘to meet the needs of the future operating environments’.218 Professionals Australia also reports ‘structural failure in re-education opportunities for engineers’, especially for higher education qualifications in engineering.219 Currently structural adjustment packages largely cater for the VET qualified workforce (as in the automotive industry) and thus offer no incentives for ‘highly skilled technical professionals’.220 A better coordinated approach to re-training experienced engineers could also help meet the demands of engineering skills of the future and is discussed in more detail in Chapter Six.

212 Ibid. 213 Ibid. 214 ATSE, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 215 Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper; Minerals Council of Australia, 2014, Minerals Tertiary Education Council, minerals.org.au/focus/mtec, accessed 26 June 2014. 216 API, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 217 ATSE, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 218 CA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 219 PA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 220 Ibid.

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While engineering trades will still be required for the engineering-related industries of the future, there will be increased demand for Certificate IV and above qualifications. To this end, Manufacturing Skills Australia is currently developing engineering training packages to support articulation from higher level VET qualifications to paraprofessional engineers.221

In addition to sourcing skills through the skills pipeline from education and through in-house training, enterprises also source in-demand skills through skilled migration programs and by partnering with other companies to ‘retain specialised skills within consortia’.222

4.2 Improving attraction to and retention in VET engineering-related qualifications For engineering-related trades and technical qualifications at the Certificates III and IV level, commencements have been variable over time, rising steadily from 5,629 in 2006 to 6,530 in 2008, dropping to 4,374 in 2009, and then recovering to 5,594 in 2012. Certificates III and IV completions were up by 66 per cent from 2006 to 2012. However, the numbers of completions in a Diploma course or higher were low, with only 34 men and 3 women completing these qualifications in 2012 compared to 27 men and 4 women in 2003.

Manufacturing Skills Australia reports that despite the easing of demand for engineering skills by the resource sector ‘there still remain areas of shortage, most particularly in the area of engineering technicians with trade skills and dual-qualified engineering trades people’.223 They also report that since these specialist skills are difficult to source, enterprises are meeting their engineering technician needs through the employment of graduate engineers in those roles.224

Previous research by Skills Australia has noted that qualification completion rates in the VET sector are low.225 Improving completion rates in VET could help meet industry demand and allow more students to progress to higher level engineering qualifications. The Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations References Committee Inquiry into the shortage of engineering and related employment skills tasked AWPA with investigating the reason why attrition rates for VET courses in engineering trades are so high. Research commissioned by AWPA on this topic found that individual completion rates in engineering trade apprenticeships have remained relatively unchanged over the past seven years, with engineering trades consistently ahead of all trades. The report provided a number of insights as well as strategies to address the challenge of improving completion rates that would be suitable for all trade apprenticeships, not just engineering-related trades.226

The research found that employers play a key role in influencing apprenticeship completions, with completion rates for apprentices employed in the government sector more than 20 percentage points higher than those for apprentices employed by Group Training Organisations, and 15 percentage points

221 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 222 ATSE, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 223 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 224 Ibid. 225 Skills Australia, 2011, Skills for prosperity—a roadmap for vocational education and training, awpa.gov.au/our-work/tertiary-sector-reform/Documents/SkillsProsperityRoadmap.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014, p. 105. 226 ACIL Allen Consulting, 2014, Engineering apprentices: review of qualification completions in engineering trades apprenticeships.

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higher than those employed in the private sector. Employer size is also an important factor, with large employers (with over 500 employees) achieving the best completion rates for their apprentices despite the fact that 60 per cent of apprentices are engaged by small employers (with fewer than 100 employees).

The consultations conducted for the research project identified a lack of awareness amongst school teachers, careers advisors, potential apprentices and parents about trade occupations beyond the residential construction industry. This has been confirmed by Manufacturing Skills Australia in its submission to AWPA, highlighting the need for careers counsellors,

to have access to up-to-date information on engineering careers at all levels, including trade and technical engineering careers and to see that trade and technical engineering careers are valid and viable career pathways for students.227

AWPA’s consultations also found that the names of some engineering trades qualifications (such as boilermaker) had no relevance to their ultimate occupations and added to the lack of knowledge about engineering trades-related occupations. There is scope for improvement in the engagement of employers and registered training organisations with secondary schools about engineering careers, including educating careers advisers and directly engaging with students.

Integrating engineering practices within school curricula, as can be done through pre-apprenticeship programs, can provide clear pathways for students from school into VET engineering-related courses. AWPA’s focus groups included participants from a public school in Victoria who were enrolled in the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) pre-apprenticeships in a range of engineering trades including automotive and electrical. The discussions found that these students had a better understanding of engineering jobs and pathways than students who wanted to study higher education engineering degrees as they had already been exposed to engineering practice as part of their pre-apprenticeships. They saw a ‘direct relevance’ between what they were studying and their future careers and ‘their experience of learning was integrated with their perceptions of work’.228 They were also focused on the completion of their Certificate I or II qualifications in their chosen trade and moving into an apprenticeship. Students were attracted to engineering occupations due to the influence of friends and family and reported that career counselling considered VCAL students a low priority when compared to those who wanted to study higher engineering degrees.229

Manufacturing Skills Australia’s submission highlighted ‘Try a Trade’ as a successful program in both Victoria and Queensland which could be rolled across all states.230 The program aims to ‘give students hands on experience at as many different trades as possible’.231 Representatives also provide information on trades including about entry pathways and remuneration. In its submission, Manufacturing Skills

227 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 228 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 229 Ibid. 230 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 231 TAFE NSW, 2014, Try-A-Trade roadshow, Western Sydney TAFE Institute, wsi.tafensw.edu.au/about-wsi/news-and-media-centre/videos/462, accessed 12 June 2014.

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Australia notes that the program ‘needs to be offered in the early years of secondary school so that the students are able to make informed choices and/or hold informed discussions with their teachers and parents around subject choices’.232

AWPA’s Manufacturing workforce study also discussed the issues pertaining to engineering apprenticeships. The report called for current Australian Apprenticeships models to be updated to reflect and respond speedily to the latest technology advances in industry. It noted that

A role exists for industry associations, firms and training providers to work together to ensure that a maximum number of apprentices and trainees have exposure to new technology and an opportunity to develop the associated skills.233

The study highlighted the example of the three-year Engineering Excellence project being piloted by the Australian Industry Group under the Accelerated Australian Apprenticeships Program. The project will be completed in June 2015 and aims to create strong links between the apprentice’s training provider and the workplace and align progression of the apprentice’s competency progression with their progression through the VET qualification. The study’s findings were similar to the findings of AWPA’s commissioned research on engineering apprenticeship completions and recommended a co-ordinated approach between the various stakeholders targeting VET recruitment, employer—apprentice matching, mentoring and employer advisory services.234

Recommendation 3

That VET providers enhance career promotion pathways into engineering trades and technical occupations by targeting school counsellors, students and parents to provide current information about pathways into engineering trades and technical qualifications and providing opportunities for students to get hands-on experience of engineering trades.

Workplace factors such as the relationship between employer and apprentice, the nature of the job and on-the-job training provided, the availability and quality of support (including for literacy and numeracy), and career pathways also influence apprenticeship completions.235 The availability of ongoing work is a key factor, as apprentices who are released by their employers due to lack of work may have difficulties in finding another employer and completing their apprenticeship.

There is an abundance of support mechanisms for apprentices, although the lack of coordination between these services can result in inefficiencies, duplication and confusion among both apprentices and their employers. There needs to be better support for ensuring appropriate employer and apprentice matching and greater engagement from Australian Apprenticeship Centres in providing apprentice vetting and recruitment services support for employers in effective management of apprentices, such as how to navigate the apprenticeship system, on the job training strategies and how to provide effective mentoring.

232 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 233 AWPA, 2014, Manufacturing workforce study, p. 108. 234 Ibid., p. 109. 235 ACIL Allen Consulting, 2014, Engineering apprentices: review of qualification completions in engineering trades apprenticeships.

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Streamlining support for employers to improve their mentoring and other aspects of their apprenticeship programs may improve rates of completion for their apprentices.

VET providers have an important role to play in meeting the training needs of workers in rural and remote regions. Currently, delivery of higher level qualifications is underrepresented in regional areas:

The vast majority of professional engineering graduates are taught in metropolitan universities. The provision of on-campus paraprofessional programs in most regional centres, including those where there is high demand for engineering skills, is very limited.236

VET plays a significant role in local communities. In 2010, according to NCVER data, 20.5 per cent of VET Engineering and Related Technologies students come from rural or remote locations. This is significantly higher than in higher education Engineering and Related Technologies, where only 7.5 per cent of students are from rural or remote locations.237 The potential for the VET sector to provide paraprofessional qualifications to address engineering skills supply in rural and remote areas is significant.

A number of VET providers have demonstrated significant capacity in offering options to meet engineering skills needs in regional and remote areas. These include flexible learning alternatives such as online delivery, e-learning, and e-portfolios. As VET providers have far more extensive coverage of regional and remote areas than higher education providers, increased collaboration between VET and higher education providers could expand the capacity to reach more students.

Manufacturing Skills Australia highlighted the success of regional programs such as the Regional Industry Skills Alliance (RISA) in the Gippsland area, which ‘provides a good model for the involvement of small and medium size enterprises in WIL opportunities for engineering graduates’. This partnership between enterprises and training and education providers has developed an integrated model targeting ‘critical, advanced manufacturing skills’. RISA has established a pathway from Certificate III to Masters levels for the development of skilled tradespeople, paraprofessionals and professionals in control and systems engineering, focusing upon designing, implementing and maintaining automated value-adding manufacturing systems. The program uses a multidisciplinary, project-based approach to build problem-solving and innovation skills, and takes students from basic principles right through to investigation of potential investors and commercialisation of the project team’s ideas. Projects are real industry proposals and will have direct industry engagement, with the aim of being integrated into practice. Technology-enabled learning and facilitated online delivery will give access to a diverse cohort of students and the program is supported across regional Victoria through a syndicated delivery network of VET providers.238

The Mid North Engineering Academy is an example of a school-based program which provides pathways into VET engineering-related qualifications.

236 King R, Dowling D and Godfrey E, 2011, Pathways from VET awards to engineering degrees: a higher education perspective, p. 23. 237 National Centre for Vocational Education Research, 2010, Tertiary education and training in Australia, ncver.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/03dc5705-2051-48a0-bf07-0fbcff210008/2010-Tertiary-education-training-2489.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=03dc5705-2051-48a0-bf07-0fbcff210008, accessed 17 June 2014, p. 17. 238 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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Pathways for school students into engineering: Mid North Engineering Academy

Mid North Engineering Academy is a partnership between Kelly Engineering, Taylors Wines, Primo Smallgoods, Balco Australia and TAFESA Regional. It was formed to provide opportunities for selected students to be trained, mentored and developed by industry for employment in the local region. The partnership targets local senior secondary students who wish to pursue a career in the engineering and manufacturing industry, and who have the potential to become leaders and managers in local industry.

The Yorke and Mid North Regions of South Australia are currently experiencing a boom in mineral exploration and mining. As a consequence, local engineering and manufacturing firms are experiencing a loss of existing and potential employees to the mining industry. Local employers were concerned that, without some kind of intervention, young people would choose to pursue vocations in the mining sector and the future of the local engineering and manufacturing industry would be at risk.

The two-year program requires students to commit to staying at school for the completion of their South Australian Certificate of Education, while taking part in an individually tailored, case-managed program. Technical skill development, mentoring, TAFE training and coordinated work placements are incorporated into the program. The partners jointly devised all aspects of the program, including developing the selection criteria, a code of ethics and wraparound sessions to support participants, as well as having active involvement in the promotion of the academy, conducting interviews and mentoring participants.

Six students from schools from across the region were selected for the first intake in February 2012 and they graduated at the end of 2013. Students in the second intake have commenced their second year and the students in the third intake were inducted in March 2014. The Mid North Engineering Academy provides improved educational pathways and local employment opportunities and participants also benefit from personalised tuition in résumé and application writing and interview skills.

As an outcome of the recommendations of the National Resources Sector Strategy, the National Apprenticeships Program (NAP) supported by the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Constructors Association, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association and other industry and education stakeholders and government provided training to resources sector workers to attain a full trade qualification within 18 months. To the end of 2013, the NAP had provided workers to a range of large resources sector companies including Anglo American Coal, Macmahon Holdings, Bechtel LNG and Leighton Contractors. The NAP is being funded by the Australian Government until 2014 and will then be managed and funded by industry. The program is currently not offering any intakes due to the decrease in demand from the resources sector.239

239 National Apprenticeships Program, 2014, nationalapprenticeships.com.au, accessed 17 June 2014. 77

Role of paraprofessional engineers and engineering technologists While engineering paraprofessionals (also known as Engineering Associates) and Engineering Technologists are reported to be of importance to some engineering enterprises, there are varying definitions of qualification pathways into these roles. Engineers Australia, which accredits professional engineering degrees in line with a number of international accords aimed at standardising competencies across countries and allowing free flow of engineering skills,240 considers only Australian Quality Framework (AQF) Level 6, VET or higher education qualifications, to be engineering paraprofessionals (‘engineering associates’ under the global Dublin Accord).241 Some stakeholders consider AQF Level 5 qualifications to lead into paraprofessional engineering occupations.242 Engineers Australia considers AQF Level 7 to be ‘engineering technologists’ under the global Sydney Accord.243 Currently Engineers Australia considers only those with AQF Level 7 (four year Bachelor degree) or Level 8 (Bachelor with Honours) to be an ‘engineering professional’ under the global Washington Accord,244 with the requirement moving to Level 8 only from 2015. Table 10 illustrates our current understanding of qualification pathways into engineering occupations:

Table 10: Engineering qualifications and occupation definitions

Engineering Qualification AQF Level Engineering Occupation Certificate IV 4 Trade Diploma 5 Paraprofessional Advanced Diploma 6 Paraprofessional/Associate (Dublin Accord) Associate Degree 6 Paraprofessional/Associate (Dublin Accord) Bachelor Degree (3-year) 7 Technologist (Sydney Accord) Bachelor Degree (4-year/Hons) 7–8 Professional (Washington Accord) Source: Adapted from Skills Australia, 2011, Engineering Pathways Seminar background paper, Figure 1.245

It is noted,

whilst the AQF does not differentiate between three-year (non-Honours) and four-year undergraduate degree qualifications, there are clear distinctions in their outcomes and value for engineering careers.246

240 Engineers Australia, 2014, International accords, engineersaustralia.org.au/membership/international-accords, accessed 17 June 2014. 241 Skills Australia, 2011, Engineering Pathways Seminar background paper, awpa.gov.au/events/documents/Engineering-Seminar-Background-Paper.pdf, accessed 10 June 2014. 242 Dowling D, 2010, A review of para-professional engineering education in Australia: exploring the VET—HE divide, Proceedings of the AAEE Conference 2010, Sydney, eprints.usq.edu.au/18169/1/Dowling_AaeE2010_2_PV.pdf, accessed 10 June 2014, pp. 17–21. 243 Ibid. 244 Ibid. 245 Ibid. 246 King R, Dowling D and Godfrey E, 2011, Pathways from VET awards to engineering degrees: a higher education perspective, p. 7.

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Advanced Diplomas in engineering are largely provided by the VET sector while Associate Degrees are provided by universities although ‘an increasing number of VET institutions are offering, or considering offering this qualification’. VET sector providers also offer both VET Diploma and Advanced Diploma programs to become engineering paraprofessionals.247 Paraprofessional engineering occupations include:

Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians Electrical Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians Electronic Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians Mechanical Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians Other building and engineering technicians.

Research shows that enrolments in higher level VET qualifications (diploma, advanced diploma) and in associate degrees and three-year Bachelors degrees which lead to technician, engineering associate (paraprofessional) and engineering technologist occupations are extremely low compared with enrolments in Certificates III and IV, and in three-year professional engineering qualifications. The research suggests that these qualifications are used as a pathway towards a professional engineering degree rather than for work in the occupations for which they are designed. The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering also reports that Engineering Technologist degrees require enhanced focus as there is currently only a ‘small number of graduates from this qualification, and many find it hard to secure employment’.248 They argue that ‘meaningful future occupations’ could require a ‘reconceived three-year degree’ which could also bring cost benefits to government and students. This would require employers to ‘define suitable roles within their organisational structures’.249

The roles of engineering paraprofessionals and engineering technologist do not appear to be well understood or valued by industry, and further work could be done to highlight this element of the engineering workforce to improve the supply of appropriately skilled people into these particular engineering occupations, potentially with lower education and training costs. Professionals Australia states that effective utilisation of this cohort of engineering skills could have prevented the previous skills shortages in engineering.250 The existence of an implicit hierarchy of engineering qualifications in which paraprofessional jobs are lower than those of professional engineers does not help with raising the status of paraprofessional occupations.251 Research by the Australian Council of Engineering Deans suggests that more national attention needs to be paid to understanding the value of paraprofessional (technicians) and engineering technologist occupations, and the provision of corresponding qualifications at AQF Levels 5–7 with a view to matching educational qualifications and occupational needs.252

AWPA’s projections indicate the demand for some of these paraprofessional engineering occupations will decline (see Table 2). However, while the current demand for paraprofessionals in the engineering

247 Ibid. 248 ATSE, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 249 Ibid. 250 PA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 251 Trevelyan J, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 252 ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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consulting sector is reported to be low and consulting firms are sourcing skills from overseas markets due to the cost benefits, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering states that the demand for these roles is likely to increase due to adoption of technology such as automated systems.253

The demands for and on these roles is likely to increase in technical intensity (e.g. in automated systems), while the pathways to them have become less clear, as university participation has grown, and the technical capabilities of the VET sector (for Levels 5–6) have shrunk with decreasing demand.254

Industry reports that some paraprofessional occupations are difficult to source in Australia, such as design-oriented civil and structural drafters.255 Enterprises often use professional engineers or engineering graduates in these paraprofessional roles. Where engineering graduates are used to fill these roles they are ‘overqualified and underprepared’256 and ‘an inefficient application of resources’.257 This could also lead to their attrition from the workforce due to low levels of job satisfaction. Competition for engineering skills in overseas markets is also increasing, making it necessary to develop domestic skills in in-demand areas such as engineering drafting in order to meet future demand.258

At the same time, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering reports that existing paraprofessionals have lower level qualifications and have risen to the jobs through promotion and short courses.259 In order to up-skill existing workers, employers have expressed a need for flexible delivery, especially in high-level skills, such as specialist welding, mechatronics, instrumentation and robotics, that need to be developed on the job.260

253 ATSE and CA, submissions to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 254 ATSE, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 255 CA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 256 ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 257 CA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 258 Ibid. 259 ATSE, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 260 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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Previous research examined VET articulation pathways into engineering, particularly in relation to their under-use of these by engineering students.261 Some findings are:

students face several challenges in relation to VET articulation pathways including balancing part-time work and family commitments, the long duration of seven years part-time study which impacts on their income earning capacity and the inadequate levels of mathematics which can produce poor outcomes for students in relation to their future job or study prospects

while VET qualifications aim to produce qualified paraprofessionals, students tend to use them as pathways into higher engineering degrees thus creating a mismatch between the intent of the courses and how students are using them

there are issues related to the recognition of these qualifications by higher education organisations and by accreditation bodies such as Engineers Australia. Currently only one advanced diploma (Chisolm Institute of TAFE) has been accredited by Engineers Australia.262

AWPA’s stakeholder consultations found that rather than paucity of pathways, the key issue was lack of recognition of the value of paraprofessional occupations in providing specialised knowledge. The potential of engineering paraprofessionals to complement the skills of engineers also needs to be recognised.263 At the same time, to improve student outcomes students need to be supported to navigate the challenges outlined above. Manufacturing Skills Australia also reports that articulation pathways are not clear and often exist between individual institutions without being advertised.264 This could be solved by maintaining a central register of these pathways managed by a sector peak body.265

Ultimately, it appears that the efficacy of VET paraprofessional pathways into engineering is reliant on industry’s views about the quality and currency of these qualifications. Engineers Australia is of the view that articulation pathways are unlikely to be major contributors to increasing numbers of engineers in the labour force.266 Customisation of these pathways by employers to increase their relevance to industry is built into the VET system but is not widely known to industry. At the same time research has cautioned against high levels of customisation which can reduce the portability of skills and ‘affect the integrity of the qualifications.’267 In addition employers have to be large enough to be registered as a training organisation in order to provide this training.

261 King R, Dowling D and Godfrey E, 2011, Pathways from VET awards to engineering degrees: a higher education perspective; Godfrey E and King R, 2011, Curriculum specification and support for engineering education: understanding attrition, academic support, revised competencies, pathways and access, Australian Learning and Teaching Council, olt.gov.au/system/files/resources/PP8-844%20UTS%20Final%20Project%20Report%20FINAL-April%2018%202011.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014. 262 Ibid., p. 24. 263 Trevelyan J, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 264 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 265 MSA and PA, submissions to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 266 Engineers Australia, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 267 Smith E, Pickersgill R, Smith A and Rushbrook P, 2005, Enterprises’ commitment to national recognised training for existing workers, National Centre for Vocational Education Research, ncver.edu.au/publications/1550.html, accessed 12 June 2014, p. 8.

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Recommendation 4

That education providers work with industry to determine the demand for, and communicate the value of, engineering paraprofessional, engineering associate and engineering technologist occupations to industry.

Manufacturing Skills Australia suggests that there will be increased demand for higher VET engineering-related qualifications. Technological advances in sectors such as Mining and Manufacturing will demand upskilling and reskilling as well as training for new skills. Manufacturing Skills Australia note that,

[while] engineering trades will still be required to provide installation, maintenance and support … there will be increasing demand for higher level skills and knowledge, especially in the technical engineering area. Already Manufacturing Skills Australia has seen a growth in uptake of higher level qualifications (Certificate IV and above) and we expect this growth to continue as manufacturing moves into the future.268

In order to anticipate and meet the skills challenges of the future in engineering trades and paraprofessional occupations, Manufacturing Skills Australia is working with stakeholders ‘to redevelop the Engineering training package to ensure that the future skills of trade and paraprofessional engineers meet the needs of employers in the future’.269 The redevelopment will also ‘examine how higher level vocational qualifications in engineering can support the articulation from vocational education to higher education for trade and paraprofessional engineers’.270

4.3 Perceptions and experiences of higher education engineering graduates There have been steady increases in the numbers of graduates from higher education degrees in engineering. As noted earlier, the numbers of higher education students commencing or completing an Engineering and Related Technologies degree has increased from 2006 to 2012 for both domestic and overseas students attaining both Bachelor degrees and higher degrees. For example, in 2006, there were approximately 10,300 domestic Bachelor-level commencements and 6,400 completions, while in 2012 there were 13,600 domestic Bachelor-level commencements and 6,900 completions (see Figure 5 and Figure 6). This pattern is largely repeated across the spectrum, although more recently there has been a contraction in overseas Bachelor-level commencements (from 5,600 in 2011 to 5,300 in 2012).

The increase in numbers has intensified the competition for limited graduate positions. According to the survey of employers by Graduate Careers Australia, in 2013, Construction, Mining and Engineering employers were least likely to have recruited more graduates than in 2012. However Technology and Utilities employers increased their graduate intake by 9.8 per cent between 2012 and 2013 and indicated they would have employed more had more appropriate candidates been available.271 In addition, demand for engineering graduates (other than resource engineering) declined by 7.6 per cent from 2012 to 2013.

268 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 269 Ibid. 270 Ibid. 271 Graduate Careers Australia, 2014, Graduate Outlook 2013, graduatecareers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Graduate_Outlook_2013.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014, p. 7.

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The study noted that since 2007 demand for engineering graduates has shifted to graduates in Business and Economics, an outcome resulting from the transitioning mining sector.272

Employers in Construction, Mining and Engineering sectors rated communication and interpersonal skills, knowledge of the industry and work experience as the top three selection criteria for graduates. Encouragingly, employers in these industries also reported the lowest attrition rates for graduates with 52.6 per cent of their graduates still employed at the end of five years.273 Employers identified mentoring scheme as the most effective graduate retention strategy.274

AWPA’s focus group consultations with engineering graduates provided insights into their experiences of engineering education. Overall, there seemed to be significant differences in the balance between theory and practice experienced by graduates at university, with those from the more research-focused institutions experiencing a heavily theoretically-oriented course, and those from more technical-based institutions having more in-course practical experiences.275 AWPA’s focus group consultations with mature-aged engineers also highlighted the dichotomy between theoretical and practice-based curricula in engineering. While they affirmed the value of a diversity of approaches to engineering study, they also drew attention to a number of consequences including lack of practice-based knowledge to solve real-life problems in the workplace, the focus on process orientation rather than on the fundamentals of engineering and the separation between the so called ‘soft’ and technical skills.276

Engineering curriculum is a key issue highlighted by previous research and by AWPA’s consultations for this report. Knowledge exchanges between engineering faculties and industry are vital to ensuring that the engineering curriculum is current and relevant to industry needs. Engineering graduate students noted their experiences of industry guest lecturers starkly contrasted with their theory-based academic curricula, and that some visits by guest lecturers were of low quality or not very useful in giving a practical perspective on that learning.277 Overall, however, these experiences were seen to be very beneficial to learning, especially when coupled with specific industry-based projects that involved group learning and solving real-world, relevant problems.278

Engineering degrees have evolved over time, notably with the adoption by Engineers Australia of the outcomes-based accreditation system as a result of the 1995–96 Changing the culture national review.279 Engineers Australia includes industry engagement including that engineering faculties formally constitute advisory mechanisms as part of its accreditation criteria guidelines. These guidelines also set out optimum work experience periods for engineering graduates. Procuring industry engagement is recognised as a key

272 Ibid., pp. 10–11. 273 Ibid., p. 46. 274 Ibid., p. 50. 275 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 276 Ibid. 277 Ibid. 278 Ibid. 279 ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper; and ACED, 2008, Engineers for the future: addressing the supply and quality of Australian engineering graduates for the 21st century, p. 24.

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challenge as is the need to include subjects ‘dealing with transferable skills’ in ‘an already crowded curriculum’.280

The Australian Council of Engineering Deans led a year-long review into engineering education in Australia. The council’s 2008 report Engineers for the Future: addressing the supply and quality of Australian graduates for the 21st century, was critical of the lack of improvement in engineering degrees and noted there has been substantial resistance to altering the traditional content and methodology of engineering degrees, many of which have not changed substantially over the intervening decade.281

The report recognised that many of the in-demand attributes required of engineering students should be integrated into their engineering education. It stated that targeting the courses to address employer criticism of graduates including students having ‘a lower grasp of ‘fundamentals’ and low levels of ability to ‘work things out from first principles’, being excessively reliant on software tools and unable to ‘independently validate computed answers’282 could enhance the industry relevance of engineering curricula.283

Mining Education Australia is a consortium of stakeholders from industry and education who have initiated a joint project to address engineering curricula in relation to the needs of employers in the mining industry (see case study following).

280 Engineers Australia, submission to AWPA 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 281 ACED, 2008, Engineers for the future: addressing the supply and quality of Australian engineering graduates for the 21st century, p. 24. 282 Ibid., p. 60. 283 Ibid.

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Industry working with education providers for curriculum development: Mining Education Australia

Mining Education Australia (MEA), created in 2006, is an unincorporated joint venture between the University of Adelaide, Curtin University, the University of New South Wales and the University of Queensland. MEA delivers a common curriculum for the final two years of the four-year Bachelor of Engineering in Mining Engineering and is supported by the Minerals Council of Australia through its educational arm, the Minerals Tertiary Education Council. The support of the Minerals Council of Australia, through its industry networks and partnerships, helps ensure curricula and graduate capabilities are relevant to industry.

MEA was established to produce and support the pipeline of high-quality, appropriately qualified engineering graduates for the mining industry. The cyclical nature of the mining industry in Australia and the minimum completion time of four years for undergraduate Engineering degrees have resulted in a lag between demand and supply of skilled graduates, and also has had a negative impact on the quality of Mining Engineering education. Large numbers of students that enter Mining Engineering degrees during periods of high employment in the field may graduate at a low point in the economic cycle and be unable to find jobs, which affects future student recruitment. Low recruitment affects teaching income, the reduction in which may lead to a reduction in teaching staff and facilities and this impacts on teaching quality. As a consequence, when the mining economic cycle improves there are insufficient graduates and academic staff.

The MEA is funded by the Minerals Council of Australia on a per capita graduate basis, effectively neutralising the effect of economic downturns on academic provision. The problem of mining industry employment for students who graduate during economic downturns is more difficult. Preliminary results for graduate destination survey for 2014 indicate it has taken longer to secure employment, however, most MEA graduates have found jobs either in the mining industry or elsewhere.

The MEA now produces 85 per cent of Australia’s mining engineers, approximately 200 in 2013. In December 2013 it was recognised by Engineers Australia and the Australian Government Department of Industry with the Award for Industry Engagement in Engineering Education.

Further integration of academic course outcomes with industry-led experience, employing faculty staff with practical industry experience as well as research and theoretical expertise, and a greater flexibility within institutions for setting curricula and updating teaching methods can strengthen the industry-relevance of these courses.284 Closer collaboration is needed between industry and education providers through exchange opportunities along with better targeting of the engineering curricula to meet specific industry needs.

284 Engineers Australia, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 85

Recommendation 5

That the relevance of engineering degrees is enhanced by industry and universities:

a) continuing to build on existing collaborative initiatives to forge exchange opportunities between engineering academics and practising engineers that facilitate knowledge exchange between engineering research and current engineering practice; and

b) collaborating to include in the engineering curricula training for skills in demand and engineering skills of the future such as collaboration skills, interdisciplinary capabilities and communication skills to increase the work-readiness of engineering graduates.

Self-organised work placements (or vacation work) undertaken by the graduates during their university studies was considered seminal in workforce preparation and in providing an entrance to employment on graduation. However, graduates highlighted the difficulties and complexities in gaining placements. While those involved in the focus groups were the ‘success stories’, these graduates described the arduous task of applying for placements as a rigorous processes similar to applying for their first jobs as graduates.285

Work-integrated and industry-led learning in engineering degrees Work-integrated learning (WIL) is an umbrella term used to describe a range of programs that integrate theory with the practice of work within a purposefully designed curriculum.286 These programs are recognised for providing both a ‘rich, active and contextualised learning experience for students which contributes to their engagement in learning’,287 and also for giving students vital industry experience prior to graduation.288 There is little current evidence in Australia of WIL imparting additional educational benefits to students (beyond work-readiness). However, in the United Kingdom, where there is a greater body of research in this area, studies have shown that WIL contributes to the development of in-demand personal capabilities in graduates including confidence, teamwork and interpersonal and communication skills.289

In 2011, the Griffith University initiated a research project into investigating the effects of these programs on student employability.290 Preliminary results suggest that WIL (which in the study included simulations, university-based projects and practical experiments) provides competitive advantages to participating

285 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s Engineering Workforce Study 2014. 286 Patrick C, Peach D and Pocknee C, 2009, The WIL [Work-integrated Learning] Report: a national scoping study, Final report to the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, olt.gov.au/system/files/grants_project_wil_finalreport_jan09.pdf, accessed 2 June 2014, p. 9. 287 McLennan B, 2008, Work-integrated learning (WIL) in Australian universities: the challenges of mainstreaming WIL, paper presented at the Career Development Learning—Maximising the Contribution of Work-integrated Learning to the Student Experience NAGCAS Symposium, Melbourne, p. 2, cited in Patrick C, Peach D and Pocknee C, 2009, The WIL [Work-integrated Learning] Report: a national scoping study, p. 3. 288 AWPA, 2014, Work integrated learning: AWPA scoping paper, awpa.gov.au/publications/Documents/WIL%20scoping%20paper.pdf, accessed 30 May 2014, p. 9. 289 Hall M, Higson H and Bullivant N, 2009, ‘The role of the undergraduate work placement in developing employment competences: results from a five year study of employers’, Development of competencies in the world of work and education, cited in AWPA, 2014, Work integrated learning: AWPA scoping paper, p. 11. 290 Ibid., p. 10.

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students.291 Other Australian research includes the Office of Learning and Teaching funded project at the Queensland University of Technology into expanding the accessibility of WIL programs.292 AWPA recently completed a scoping study on WIL which examined current academic literature and wider issues associated with WIL learning. The paper identified that the Australian Collaborative Education Network—a collaboration between 35 universities, students, industry, community and government293—funded two new projects as of late 2013. These projects will examine the benefits of authentic WIL experiences as opposed to simulations, case studies and problem based learning, and how best to reduce financial stress for students during their placements.294

It is a pre-requisite for engineering faculties who wish to accredit their courses with Engineers Australia to incorporate WIL into the curriculum. WIL programs for engineering students in Australia generally involve internship placements with employers during university vacation periods. Engineers Australia recommends 6 to 12 weeks of work experience for engineering students studying towards becoming a professional engineer, and most of the accredited faculties have followed this guideline.295 The Senate inquiry report noted that work experience opportunities for students that are paid and assessable within their degree benefit both the student and the industry, by enhancing graduate employment outcomes and expanding the pool of work-ready graduates available to employers.296

WIL opportunities greatly rely on existing relationships between employers and universities, and thus can be ad hoc in availability and in relation to the actual content of the program.297 Employers may not be clear about what aspect of engineering practice within the work environment that students need to experience of engineering practice within the work environment.298 International engineering students, in particular, may find it difficult to find a place, largely due to potential employers’ incorrect understanding of visa conditions.299 There are only a limited number of places available during the highly sought after 12–week December—February university vacation period. This poses a challenge to finding good-quality places for all pre-final year students.300

Participants in AWPA’s graduate focus groups, all of whom had successfully arranged their placements early in their degrees, noted that there was little direction and support in this area from their faculties. They likened the experience of applying for places to applying for a job, with a limited number of places available annually and strong competition for these places. The Senate inquiry report into engineering skills shortages was also critical of the insufficient numbers of ‘work-readiness’ programs in universities, and a

291 Ibid. 292 Ibid., p. 15. 293 Ibid., p. 14. 294 Ibid., p. 15. 295 Engineers Australia, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 296 Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee, 2012, The shortage of engineering and related employment skills, p. 72. 297 CA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 298 Trevelyan J, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 299 Ibid. 300 ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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lack of practical engineering experience in current engineering curricula.301 This view was upheld in AWPA’s consultations, although it was noted that employers should not expect engineering graduates to be work-ready when they are hired. Engineering graduates require the first few years of employment to gain practical experience and build upon the theory taught in university.302

The Australian Council of Engineering Deans agreed that successful WIL approaches involved strong university—employer relationships with support towards finding placements,303 and most importantly, dedicated workplace mentoring.304 There was also agreement that students should be remunerated and the limitations in the capacity of small- to medium-sized companies to do this were noted.

The Australian Power Institute’s Bursary program (see case study following) was highlighted by the Senate inquiry report as an example of a successful work experience program for engineering graduates.

301 Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee, 2012, The shortage of engineering and related employment skills, pp. 41, 43. 302 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 303 ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 304 ACED and Trevelyan J, submissions to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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Industry working with engineering students to provide paid work experience: Australian Power Institute

The Australian Power Institute works to support the education and professional development of power engineers across Australia by offering Power Engineering Bursaries to high-performing engineering students with an interest in areas of engineering relevant to the electric power industry.

The majority of bursaries are awarded to first year students, with a proportion available to second and third year students.

The scale of investment and technological change required in the Australian energy sector is significant and real engineering talent will be needed to meet the customer expectations for price, reliability and service of electricity.

The bursaries provide cash value of $8,000 over four years as well as the opportunity, where available, of paid employment with member companies over three summer vacations.

According to one student:

The opportunity to undertake several periods of paid employment with a variety of different companies was the most beneficial aspect of the bursary program for me. This industry involvement has given me a better understanding of requirements in different roles and how different organisations operate. Nearing completion of my degree I have worked with three bursary affiliate companies as well as two others and this experience will enable me to select my career path with more informed decisions.

I was also fortunate to obtain a final year project topic from Tarong Energy working on the design parameters for a dense phase coal ash slurry pipeline. It was good experience working on a real design issue in a highly technical field that required significant testing and analysis. This process built on my skills in project work and application of theory and investigation to an industry problem.

The power industry is keen to increase female representation in engineering roles, so the Australian Power Institute particularly encourages applications from female students.

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Further to the 2008 review that resulted in the Engineers for the Future report, the Australian Council of Engineering Deans has developed a project to strengthen industry engagement with engineering faculties.

Enhancing industry engagement in engineering degrees: Australian Council of Engineering Deans project

This project develops, implements and evaluates new guidelines and projects for more effective industry engagement between engineering degree students and engineering employers. The overall goal is to improve student retention, graduate numbers, and their employability. The two-year pilot project, which is due to be completed in June 2014, involves twelve universities offering Engineers Australia-accredited engineering degrees. The project is supported by a reference group, composed of industry peak bodies.

The project examines the nexus of engineering practice and engineering degrees. It recognises that good industry exposure and practice for all engineering students is challenging to mobilise. Improved performance through these partnerships will require significant and long-term changes to the cultures of engineering faculties and of industry. The project seeks to highlight the importance to students of understanding the relevance of what they learn in the classroom to their future engineering careers. It also emphasises that students who have an understanding of real engineering practice and have had the opportunity to develop those competencies will be better equipped for practising as engineers upon graduation.

Over the course of the project more than 280 students, graduates, academics and industry representatives have been consulted by interview, focus group and surveys. Draft principles, guidelines and recommendations for good practice were revised through five forums encompassing 149 industry members and academics. Seven of the participating universities have developed and tested ‘industry-inspired’ projects involving more than 30 companies and 1,000 students. These resources will be available for wider use at the completion of the project. The project has also compiled a series of tested ‘best-practice’ exemplars from engineering faculties, industry and government to assist the community as a whole to provide good quality industry-based learning opportunities to all engineering students at a reasonable cost.

This project could provide the basis for a more coordinated effort between industry and education providers.

Recommendation 6

That industry and universities build on the findings of the Australian Council of Engineering Deans’ pilot project on work-integrated learning and use these programs to create pathways into sustainable employment for graduates.

A number of collaborative arrangements between government and industry are in place to improve the effectiveness of WIL programs. The Office of the Chief Scientist has commissioned two baseline studies on WIL, advised by its Industry Working Group which comprises representatives from both industry and university organisations. This group provides a forum for these sectors to collaborate and advise on mechanisms to improve the quantity and preparedness of graduates to meet Australia’s future workforce needs. One study will describe and evaluate WIL initiatives and programs in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) faculties in universities. The second study will investigate the extent and nature of WIL participation by employers and define the constraints/barriers to WIL engagement by

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businesses, the potential mechanisms to overcome the constraints and the impacts of WIL (for example, on graduate employability and the capabilities of university education programs to meet employer needs).305

As part of a broader effort, the Office of the Chief Scientist and AWPA initiated an agreement in February 2014 between Universities Australia, the Australian Industry Group, the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Australian Collaborative Education Network to ‘improve the breadth and value of work placements and projects as part of accredited university study’.306 It aims to broaden the availability of work experience to students to enhance their employment prospects post-graduation. It also aims to provide innovative employers with exposure to the energy, skills and fresh ideas of students. The strategy involves universities and businesses continuing to identify, promote and disseminate further opportunities for WIL.307 Through this work ‘universities and business groups have agreed to establish a baseline of current practice, identifying further opportunities and a program of assessment for reporting progress’.308

Improving labour market outcomes for higher education engineering graduates Labour market outcomes for engineering graduates are shaped by a number of factors including intermittency of engineering work, industry demand for experienced workers and the attractiveness of transferable skills gained by graduates to other industry sectors.

Table 11 and Table 12 show the labour force status of persons who have studied Engineering and Related Technologies at the Bachelor degree level and above and at the Certificate III, IV or Diploma level. The vast majority of graduates in both groups were employed (81.7 per cent and 73.9 per cent respectively); however, the statistics include people working in non-engineering related occupations.

Table 11: Labour force status for persons who have studied Engineering and Related Technologies at Bachelor degree level or above

Labour force status Number of persons (%) Employed 210,064 81.7 Unemployed 7,701 3.0 Not in labour force 39,243 15.3 Total 257,008 100.0 Source: ABS, 2011, Census of population and housing.

305 Office of the Chief Scientist, input provided to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce study. 306 Harding S, 2014, ‘Stirring and shaking Australia's tertiary sector—and the economy’, address to the National Press Club, Universities Australia, universitiesaustralia.edu.au/news/media-releases/Stirring-and-shaking-Australia-s-tertiary-sector---and-the-economy#.U5lKoD5—Un, accessed 12 June 2014. 307 Universities Australia, 2014, ‘University/business partnership to boost graduate employment,’ media release, 26 February, universitiesaustralia.edu.au/news/media-releases/-business-partnership-to-boost-graduate-employment#.U5lLMD5—Ul, accessed 12 June 2014. 308 Ibid.

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Table 12: Labour force status for persons who have studied Engineering and Related Technologies at Certificate III and IV level and Diploma* level

Labour force status Number of persons (%) Employed 849,990 73.9 Unemployed 24,448 2.1 Not in labour force 276,413 24.0 Total 1,150,851 100.0 * Includes Advanced Diploma Source: ABS, 2011, Census of population and housing.

Engineering graduates find employment either through graduate programs run by engineering enterprises or through ‘ancillary roles in the professional services sector as consultants.’309 The mining equipment, technology and services sector which supplies services to the mining industry is an example of professional services sector which is a significant employer of engineering professionals.310

Table 13 shows the percentage of 20–29 year olds at the 2011 census who studied a particular engineering qualification, currently in employment and employed in an engineering-related occupation. It shows that the percentage of 20–29 year olds, who completed an engineering qualification, and are working in an engineering occupation, varies depending upon the field of education. For example, 86.7 per cent of those who studied mining engineering and were in employment were employed in an engineering occupation. Civil engineering, electrical engineering and chemical engineering also show a high percentage of those holding the respective qualification and working in an engineering occupation. However almost a third of those who studied electronic engineering, and were employed at the time of the census, were employed in a non- engineering occupation and almost half (46 per cent) of those who studied industrial engineering, who were employed, worked in a non-engineering occupation.

309 MCA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 310 Ibid.

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Table 13: Occupational outcomes by Field of Education, 2011 Census of population and housing

Field of Education Professionals engineering

occupations311 (%)

Trades engineering occupations (%)

Non-engineering-related

occupations (%) Aerospace engineering and technology (0315) 69.9* 1.7 28.4

Chemical Engineering (030301) 72.8 2.4 24.8 Civil Engineering (0309) 83.6 3.9 12.5 Industrial Engineering (030703) 49.4** 4.6 46.0 Electrical Engineering (031301) 76.5 4.2 19.4 Electronic Engineering (031303) 62.2 6.8 30.9 Mechanical Engineering (030701) 71.1 4.8 24.0 Mining Engineering (030303) 86.7 2.0 11.3 Other Engineering and Related Technologies (0399)

73.0 3.5 23.5

* includes aircraft maintenance engineers ** includes a number of industrial occupations such as Industrial Designers, Metal fitters and Machinists and Structural Steel and Welding trades workers Source: ABS, 2011, Census of population and housing.

AWPA’s consultations found that stakeholders reported a number of barriers to graduate engineers finding entry-level jobs in engineering occupations. Intermittency of engineering work is identified by stakeholders as a key barrier to the attractiveness of engineering occupations. As noted before, intermittency of engineering work impacts on the ability of enterprises, especially smaller engineering consulting firms, to provide training support for entry-level positions to up skill new graduates. This makes it difficult for engineering graduates to get the post-graduation experience and skills necessary to make them competitive in the job market.312 Furthermore, ‘engineers aspire to careers in engineering’ and intermittency of work constrains their ability to realise this aspiration. Therefore they seek work in non-engineering occupations which provide them with ongoing career pathways.313

As engineering degrees only provide the foundation on which to build knowledge of engineering practice through work experience, new graduate engineers are particularly vulnerable in times of downturn when enterprises often downsize in-house engineering314 and prioritise the retention of their experienced engineers over graduate employment places.315 A survey of employers by Consult Australia found that 71 per cent of companies surveyed indicated that they would employ graduates in 2014 and 79 percent said they would expect to employ graduates in 2015. With regard to numbers of graduates, 36 per cent of those surveyed indicated they expect to employ fewer graduates than usual.316 Intermittency of work also results in reliance on contract arrangements which results in instability of employment for workers.

311 Engineers Australia, 2010, The engineering profession in Australia: a profile from the 2006 population census. 312 Trevelyan J, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 313 Engineers Australia, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 314 Trevelyan J, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 315 CA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 316 Ibid.

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Engineering degree-holders are in demand from other quantitative project-based employers, such as the financial and managerial sectors. Engineering degrees include applied problem-solving, research skills and professional skills in addition to engineering science, which are skills that are extremely attractive to employers outside the field of engineering.317 Stakeholder state that significant numbers of engineering graduates find employment in non-engineering-related sectors such as Financial and Insurance Services and Information Media and Telecommunications.318 With the increasing proliferation of dual engineering degrees, opportunities for employment for graduate engineers in other sectors are strengthened. Graduates of double degrees with business or management as the second degree may choose to work in finance or management but will continue to bring ‘engineering perspectives and approaches to their work’.319

Engineers Australia is of the view that this issue is not unique to engineering320 and other stakeholders state that the wide range of employment opportunities should be ‘celebrated’.321 The Australian Power Institute notes that wherever they work, engineers will contribute their skills to benefit Australian business and the economy.322 Others consider it a ‘loss’ of engineering graduates to other fields, ‘a waste of effort’ at a time of persistent shortages of experienced engineers in some engineering occupations323 and a disruption of the engineering skills pipeline.324 When graduates who wish to work in engineering are unable to find employment, it has both individual and social impacts. At the individual level, their return on the investment they made in their education is not realised. At a broader level,

from the point of view of society, investments in the nation’s engineering education are made on the basis of expectation of improved products and services generated during the engineers’ working lives.325

Other barriers to engineering graduates working in engineering-related occupations include that of under-employment of engineering graduates where they are used to fill paraprofessional roles. In addition, engineering jobs in key growth sectors such as Mining are often located in remote and ‘unattractive’ places which may impact on their appeal to new engineering graduates.326

Overseas examples of graduate recruitment provide innovative models for consideration by Australian firms. For example, Thales UK developed a project called Project Arduino which was based on feedback from a select group of engineering graduates. The participants were asked to create an open-source electronics platform relevant to Thales’s business area. This ‘soft approach’ was supported by social media which expanded to include the network of students’ friends, some of whom also became potential

317 ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 318 Engineers Australia, 2013, The engineering profession: a statistical overview, p. 56. 319 ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 320 Engineers Australia, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 321 ACED and ATSE, submissions to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 322 API, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 323 ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 324 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 325 ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 326 Engineers Australia, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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employees. The company’s ‘cool and innovative approach’ captured their imagination and engineering applications to the company rose by 60 per cent and internship applications doubled.327

Stakeholders report that some graduate engineers will struggle to find employment as engineers because they do not have the necessary skills to succeed. Literacy skills, in particular, for Australian graduates are considered below standard, and overseas graduates also find it harder than domestic graduates to find jobs due to inadequate English language skills. Differing university standards of English language abilities can result in mismatches between university and workplace expectations for communication abilities.

In addition, the Australian Government’s 2014 Federal Budget announcements about the de-regulation of university fees has prompted Engineers Australia to note that, should these measures be implemented, they could potentially raise the cost of engineering degrees significantly and possibly make studying engineering degrees prohibitive.328 At the time of writing this report, these measures had not been passed by the Australian Parliament.

4.4 Labour market outcomes for skilled migrants AWPA’s research indicates that skilled migration is an increasingly significant source of skills supply for the engineering workforce.

There are two principal streams through which employers obtain engineering professionals and trades workers: permanent migration (points-tested skilled migration and employer-sponsored programs) and temporary migration (largely through the Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457) program).329

Department of Immigration and Border Protection statistics show that in 2012–13, the engineering-related industries (Construction, Manufacturing, Mining, and Professional, Scientific and Technical Services) sponsored 32 per cent of the total 68,480 Temporary Work (Skilled) visas (subclass 457) granted to primary applicants.330 The extent to which skilled migration is relied upon for engineering professionals and trades workers is illustrated in Figure 11 and Figure 12.

The data in Figure 11 indicates a significant increase in skilled migration for engineering professionals (as listed on the Specialised Occupations List, Appendix A, Table 17) from 2006 onwards. There was a big increase in 2011–12 to 26,127; however, this number declined by 17.2 per cent to 21,646 in 2012–13. Among the different skilled migration arrangements, in all years except 2009–10, Temporary Work (Skilled) visas (subclass 457) account for the highest number of skilled engineering workers, followed by those entering through the permanent skilled independent stream.

327 Parkes A, 2014, ‘Engineering firms need to rethink the graduate problem,’ The Engineer, 15 April, theengineer.co.uk/opinion/viewpoint/engineering-firms-need-to-rethink-the-graduate-problem/1018389.article, accessed 12 June 2014. 328 Durkin S, 2014, University fee increases – the perfect storm?, Engineers Australia, engineersaustralia.org.au/news/university-fee-increases-perfect-storm, accessed 12 June 2014. 329 Department of Immigration and Border Protection, 2013, unpublished data. 330 Ibid.

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Figure 11: Overseas skilled migration for engineering professions, 2006–07 to 2012–13

Source: Department of Immigration and Border Protection, 2013, unpublished data.

When compared to the engineering professions, there have been a lower number of migrants coming through the various migration arrangements engineering-related trades. Figure 12 shows that migration numbers were high at 6,722 in 2007–08 and 6,613 in 2008–09, declining to their lowest level of 3,394 in 2009–10. In 2011–12 skilled migration reached its highest point (7,073) before declining to 4,579 in 2012–13. As with the skilled professionals, among the different skilled migration arrangements, workers on Temporary Work (Skilled) primary visas (subclass 457) accounted for the highest number of skilled migrants in engineering-related occupations in all years except 2009–10, when employer-sponsored workers represented the largest category. From 2010–11 onwards, employer-sponsored workers constituted the second-largest proportion of workers entering through skilled migration programs.

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Figure 12: Overseas skilled migration for engineering-related trades, 2006–07 to 2012–13

Source: Department of Immigration and Border Protection, 2013, unpublished data.

Table 14 presents data on Temporary Work (Skilled) visas (subclass 457) granted for engineering-related occupations in 2012–13. Among the listed occupations, Software and Applications Programmers were granted the highest number of Temporary Work (Skilled) visas (subclass 457) (4,600), followed by Structural Steel and Welding Trades Workers (1,150), and Civil Engineering Professionals (1,050). AWPA research suggests that the high number of Software and Applications Programmers with Temporary Work (Skilled) visas (subclass 457) reflects specific skills and experience in great demand by employers, which are difficult to source domestically.331

331 AWPA, 2013, ICT workforce study, awpa.gov.au/publications/Documents/ICT-STUDY-FINAL-28-JUNE-2013.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014.

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Table 14: Subclass 457 visas granted by engineering-related occupations, 2012–13

ANZSCO code Occupation Subclass 457 visas granted

Engineering professionals 1331 Construction Managers* 500 1332 Engineering Managers* 530 2331 Chemical and Materials Engineers 110 2332 Civil Engineering Professionals 1,050 2333 Electrical Engineers 320 2334 Electronics Engineers 120 2335 Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers 860 2336 Mining Engineers 410 2339 Other Engineering Professionals 710 2613 Software and Applications Programmers 4,600

263111 Computer Network and Systems Engineers 280 2633 Telecommunications Engineering Professionals 200

Engineering-related trades 3122 Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 260 3123 Electrical Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 520 3124 Electronic Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 200 3231 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers 160 3221 Metal Casting, Forging and Finishing Trades Workers 50 3222 Sheetmetal Trades Workers 90 3223 Structural Steel and Welding Trades Workers 1,150 3232 Metal Fitters and Machinists 610 3233 Precision Metal Trades Workers 10 3132 Telecommunications Technical Specialists 120

* These occupations are in the Managers ANZSCO classification, but have been grouped under engineering professionals. Source: Department of Immigration and Border Protection, 2013, unpublished custom data. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.

Due to the intermittency of demand for engineering work, temporary skilled migration is critical to meet peak demand for specialist engineering skills where domestic supply cannot be boosted in the short-term.

When employers or their agents decide to recruit directly from overseas (either by using 457 visas or the Employer Nomination Scheme), it is generally to fill a very specific skill shortage that cannot be filled by local talent. Overseas recruitment is costly both in terms of time and money, with, on occasions, unanticipated issues both for employer and visa holders relating to employment suitability and appropriate settlement.332

332 Misko J, 2012, The role of qualifications in foreign labour mobility in Australia, research report, National Centre for Vocational Education Research, ncver.edu.au/publications/2542.html, accessed 12 June 2014, p. 26.

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However, skilled migration is not a substitute for longer-term skills development of the Australian engineering workforce and ‘the role of industry is developing a suitable base of locally qualified engineers, compared to relying on temporary skilled migration to meet demand, must be examined’.333

Given the importance of the supply of skills from skilled migration, employment outcomes for this cohort, especially for permanent skilled migrants, can be boosted to enhance the relevance and availability of their skills to industry. Data from the Continuous Survey of Australian Migrants (CSAM) (referenced below in Table 15) shows the outcomes of skilled migrants who have nominated the ANZSCO 233 Minor Group Engineering Professionals. At 12 months after arrival, 40.2 per cent of those who nominated ANZSCO 233 as an occupation were employed in an occupation within ANZSCO 233 Minor Group Engineering Professionals, 55.4 per cent were employed either as engineers or in a related field and 63.7 per cent were employed as an engineer or in an equally skilled occupation. This shows that the engineering skills of about 30 per cent of skilled migrant engineers are under-utilised 12 months after their arrival in Australia.

Table 15: Outcomes of migrants nominating ‘ANZSCO 233 Engineering Professionals’ as their occupations, based on the Continuous Survey of Australian Migrants 2009–11

Employed as an engineer (ANZSCO

233) (%)

Employed as an engineer or in a related skilled

occupation* (%)

Employed as an engineer or

equally skilled occupation** (%)

Employed (%)

Skilled migrants (CSAM), employed after 12 months

40.2 55.4 63.7 92.9

Domestic workforce, aged 25–49 34.2 57.8 78.2 89.0 *Related skilled occupation includes, Engineering Professionals (233), Construction, Distribution, and Production Managers (133), Business and Systems Analysts, and Programmers (261), ICT Network and Support Professionals (263), Building and Engineering Technicians (312), Architects, Designers, Planners and Surveyors (232). ** ‘Employed as an Engineer or in an equally skilled occupation’ refers to employment in all Major Group 1 and 2 occupations (Manager and Professional). Source: Department of Immigration and Border Protection, 2009–2011, Continuous Survey of Australia’s Migrants; ABS, 2011, Census of population and housing.

Stakeholders argue that in times of high demand for engineering skills, these outcomes can be improved. Research by Engineers Australia (using ABS Census of population and housing data) shows poor labour market outcomes for overseas born engineers particularly for those from countries in North Africa and the Middle East.334 Their analysis also found that overseas born female engineers had lower employment rates in engineering occupations than men. In addition, the analysis by Engineers Australia notes that outcomes for these engineers in relation to finding employment in engineering-related occupations did not improve with more time lived in Australia.335

333 ACOLA, 2014, The role of science, research and technology in lifting Australian productivity, p. 105. 334 Engineers Australia, 2013, The engineering profession: a statistical overview, p. 19 335 Ibid. Note that Engineers Australia’s analysis was based on ‘overseas born engineers in Australia’ based on ABS Census of population and housing data.

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A number of issues have been raised by stakeholders as barriers to skilled migrant engineers being employed in engineering occupations. Research has found that English fluency is vital for achieving positive labour market outcomes for skilled migrants to Australia. Inadequacy of English language skills has been identified as a key issue in hindering employment prospects for skilled migrant engineers. In general, native English-speaking migrants show enhanced labour market outcomes including securing employment in jobs commensurate with their skills and qualifications when compared to non-native English speaking migrants whose skills are often under-utilised.336 Consult Australia reports that skilled permanent independent migrant visas require an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of just six, whereas professional engineers working for consulting firms usually require a score of at least seven in each of the four IELTS test components. Therefore, those arriving on an employer-sponsored migrant visa will more often have English language skills that already suit their employers.337 Manufacturing Skills Australia has called for the English level required for permanent skilled migration to be reviewed. Lack of adequate English language skills puts pressure on employers to up skill existing workers who may be too valuable to the workplace to be offsite on training.338

There are a number of existing programs to support skilled migrant engineers to navigate the Australian engineering labour market. Engineers Australia recently produced How to increase your chances of getting your fist engineering job in Australia, which provides information on continuing professional development, networking, job websites, preparing job applications and preparing for job interviews.339 AWPA’s consultations found that short courses are needed to ‘update’ skilled migrants to relevant regulatory, language, cultural familiarity and qualifications standards, developed and ‘co-branded’ with industry to ensure ‘faith in outcomes’.340 These courses should ideally include technical language proficiency and ‘access to occupational specific English language training linked to valid work experience’.341 Stakeholders have recommended AMES’s Skilled Professional Migrants Program as a case study of short courses designed to inform skilled migrants about Australian workplaces and recruitment practices (see case study following).

336 Ryan C and Sinning M, 2012, The training requirements of foreign-born workers in different countries, NCVER, ncver.edu.au/publications/2520.html, accessed 19 June 2014, p. 8. 337 CA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 338 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 339 Engineers Australia, 2013, How to increase your chances of getting your first engineering job in Australia, information booklet, engineersaustralia.org.au/news/help-new-migrant-engineers, accessed 17 June 2014. 340 PA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 341 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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Employment pathways for skilled migrants: AMES’ Skilled Professional Migrants Program (SPMP)

Skilled migrant professionals can experience many difficulties entering the job market in Australia, especially if they come through the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189) stream and do not have the support of an employer when they enter the country. Run by AMES, Australia’s largest provider of settlement, education and employment services for newly arrived migrants, the SPMP is a four-week intensive workshop designed to target the specific difficulties which can prevent migrants from entering the workforce. It includes the preparation of résumés and job applications, interview skills and networking.

The program also aims to develop participants’ understanding of the Australian job market and workplace culture. During the course, participants have mock job interviews with feedback from corporate volunteers and, after completing the course, can be mentored by industry professionals who provide ongoing support and advice during their job search. Past participants can also join an AMES SPMP alumni group that facilitates networking and information exchange.

A review of the program interviewed 239 program participants (34 per cent of whom were engineers) and found that 58 per cent had found professional work following the program. Further, more than half were in employment within three months of completing the course.

Research suggests that in addition to language and other factors, potential labour market discrimination may also be an issue for this cohort.342 Research on the labour mobility of permanent skilled migrants in Australia has indicated that discrimination is often disguised under recruitment requirements for local employment experience.343 An analysis of surveys undertaken by AMES NSW and Engineers Australia found that requirement for local experience by Australian recruiters was cited as the most significant reason for failure to find employment. Both surveys had between 44 and 72 per cent of those who participated indicating they were unemployed and significant proportions of those surveyed had 5–15 years of professional experience. The survey also found that Australian employers placed more emphasis on local experience when compared to other countries such as the United Kingdom.344 This results in a ‘large pool of untapped talent’345 and skills wastage and atrophy as engineers lose the currency of their qualifications the longer they are out of engineering-related work. It also undermines the potential of this source of supply to effectively contribute to Australia’s prosperity and economic progress through their skills:

Independent skilled migrants go to great personal financial expense and emotional cost in making the decision to start a new life in Australia and to contribute to Australia’s economy through the use of their professional skills and training.346

Australian engineering-related industries, engineering faculties and research systems rely heavily on skilled migrants, international students and academics and it is important to ensure their employability and utilise

342 Cameron R, Joyce D, Wallace M and Kell P, 2013, ‘Onshore skilled migrant engineers: skills wastage and atrophy’, Australian Bulletin of Labour 39 (1). 343 Misko J, 2012, The role of qualifications in foreign labour mobility in Australia, p. 17. 344 Cameron R, Joyce D, Wallace M and Kell P, 2013, ‘Onshore skilled migrant engineers: skills wastage and atrophy’, pp. 106–107. 345 Ibid., p. 108. 346 Ibid.

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their skills to meet key gaps in industry demand for engineering skills. It should also be noted that as employment and salaries improve in their home countries it has become more difficult to attract and retain ‘good’ overseas engineers, both into employment and into academia.347

The OECD recommended a number of strategies to prevent loss of human capital in terms of under employment and unemployment of skilled migrants in developed countries including in Australia. These include enhancing direct involvement by employers ‘to better identify the types of skills that are required and refocus pre-departure training programmes and re-integration programmes in the countries to suit requirements’.348 Support is also required for developing and strengthening local networks—especially professional ones—for skilled migrants in order to accelerate the process of gaining an understanding of Australian workplace culture and expectations.

The government policy of giving priority to employer-nominated applications for skilled migration also helps to ensure that people who bring specialist skills to Australia use those skills in areas of demand. Stakeholders note that skilled migrant engineers who come to Australia in Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457) stream or other employer-sponsored streams have better employment outcomes than those who arrive through General Skilled Migration stream. As stated by Consult Australia in the Senate inquiry report:

… the firm-sponsored skilled migrant entries—that is, those that come in on a 457 as sponsored by firms—have a very high success rate because they are hand-picked by the firms and the firms are picky about who they have working for them. They have good English language skills and they have a high degree of confidence that they will transition into the Australian culture and the particular firm's culture and that they will have a high degree of success, because firms are not going to go to the expense of bringing people into Australia if they think they are going to fail.349

Recommendation 7

a) That the Australian Government maintain priority of employer-sponsored migration applicants. b) That skilled migrant engineers are provided with expanded and structured orientation programs which

include information about Australian recruitment practices and workplace culture and that these programs undertake ongoing evaluation to measure outcomes and enable continuous improvement.

347 ACED and API, submissions to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 348 OECD, 2012, Harnessing the skills of migrants and diasporas to foster development: policy options, oecd.org/migration/Policy_Brief_Migrants_En_BD%20DEFINITIF.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014, p. 22. 349 Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee, 2012, The shortage of engineering and related employment skills, p. 24.

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There have recently been calls by some stakeholders such as Professionals Australia to reconsider skilled migration arrangements for engineering workers. This has been attributed to the declining employment outcomes for domestic engineering workers.350 Continuing a focus on developing and effectively utilising domestic engineering skills is vital to long-term planning for Australian engineering skills development. The role of skilled migration to fill targeted and specific gaps in the skills supply pipeline into engineering is part of this long-term strategy and not a substitute for developing domestic capabilities in engineering skills.

350 Professionals Australia, 2014, PA calls for engineering to come off Skilled Migration List, professionalsaustralia.org.au/newsviews/latest/?id=3174, accessed 12 June 2014.

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Chapter Five: Increasing the engagement of women in engineering

The low participation of women in the engineering workforce has persisted despite strategies by employers and educational institutions to improve the situation. While the low numbers of girls participating in STEM-related subjects at school levels is a key barrier, this alone does not explain the ‘leaky pipeline’ where the retention of female engineers and trades workers in engineering occupations is also low.351 While the numbers of female engineering professionals increased over the two decades to 2013 (from 21,100 in 1993 to 36,500 female workers in 2013), Figure 13 demonstrates that the proportion of females working as engineering professionals or engineering-related trade workers decreased by 0.7 per cent for professionals and by 0.7 per cent for female trades workers and technicians.

Figure 13: Female employment and employment growth in engineering occupations, 1993–13

Source: ABS, 2013, Labour force survey, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003.

The paucity of part-time work in the engineering workforce is another limiting factor on its capacity to retain female engineers. Figure 14 shows that over 89 per cent of engineering professionals and 98.3 per cent of engineering-related trade workers are male, with 83.9 per cent and 94.7 per cent working full-time,

351 Mills JE, Franzway S, Gill J and Sharp R, 2014, Challenging knowledge, sex and power: gender, work and engineering, Routledge IAFFE Advances in Feminist Economics, Routledge, London and New York, p. 11.

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respectively. Both groups have significantly less female workers and a significantly higher proportion of full-time workers when compared to the all industries average. Only 1.8 per cent of professional women engineers and 0.4 per cent women in engineering trades work part-time, compared to 21 per cent for all occupations.352

Figure 14: Gender profile for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades, 2013, four-quarter average


Additionally, the participation rate of female engineers declines earlier than that of male engineers in older age cohorts, indicating that women retire from the engineering workforce earlier than men.353 Female professional engineers appear to be dropping out of the workforce between 30 and 44 years of age, and either not returning to the engineering workforce or retiring.354

The persistence of low participation rates of female engineers indicates that current strategies may need to be complemented by others that address systemic issues and target the gendered nature of engineering roles and workplaces. AWPA’s consultations found that programs such as ‘women in engineering’ groups in universities are improving outcomes for women who want to study engineering. Workplaces also have in place a range of strategies to improve the retention of women. Some of these initiatives are discussed in the next section.

352 ABS, 2013, Labour force survey, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003, four quarter average. 353 Engineers Australia, 2013, The engineering profession: a statistical overview, pp. 72–73. 354 Ibid.

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5.1 Existing strategies to improve the participation of women Chapter Three discussed gendered participation issues in relation to STEM subjects at school level. Research has found that girls and boys have significantly different motivators in making career choices. For example, Re-Engineering Australia research found that girls are primarily motivated by their participation in actual projects, complemented by support from role models and parents, whereas the primary motivation for boys’ career choices was found to be inspiring role models.355 AWPA’s focus groups found that participation in programs focused on attracting girls into engineering such as the Power of Engineering, as well as parental and cultural factors, influenced participants’ career choices.356

There are a number of programs that target enhancing the participation of girls in STEM subjects including Robogals. This program has been highlighted by Manufacturing Skills Australia as a good example which includes inspiring female role models and engages with students at primary school level and follows up with them at Year 9.357

The need to increase the participation of women in tertiary education, including in engineering degrees and VET qualifications, has initiated a number of strategies designed to achieve this aim. A number of higher education providers have initiated ‘women in engineering’ groups which aim to provide a range of support for female engineering students. ‘Women in engineering’ programs benefit faculties in a number of ways including:

engaging women students in outreach, mentoring, peer tutoring and leadership roles contributing to recruitment initiatives providing ‘alternative perspectives in faculty discussion and debate’ demonstrating the valuing of women and sending ‘clear messages’ about the ‘commitment to equity

and opportunity for all’.358

‘Women in engineering’ programs need to take into account a wide range of preferences including views of women who may choose to accept the mainstream culture as ‘one of the guys.’ Stakeholder research recommends that these programs be implemented in conjunction with other measures such as representation of women in teaching, inclusive approaches to curriculum development and teaching including ‘gender-equity analyses’ in reviews of courses, diversity training and education about the ‘social and political dimensions’ of engineering work.359

Two successful ‘women in engineering’ programs are highlighted in the following case studies.

355 Re-Engineering Australia, 2012, Understanding the motivational drivers of children’s career decision choices, rea.org.au/wp-content/uploads/REA-Education-White-Paper.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014, pp. 17-18. 356 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s Engineering Workforce Study. 357 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 358 King R, 2011, Women in engineering education: recommendations for curriculum change and support to aid recruitment and retention, olt.gov.au/system/files/resources/PP8-844%20UTS%20King%202011%20Women_in_engineering_education.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014. 359 Ibid.

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Encouraging female engineers: University of New South Wales

The University of New South Wales’ Faculty of Engineering is actively recruiting women and has set a goal of boosting female enrolments to 25 per cent by 2020 (it is currently at 20 per cent).

The university’s Women in Engineering Program aims to inspire girls to pursue engineering degrees and careers, support women studying engineering at the University of New South Wales, and celebrate the successes of female engineering graduates.

Engineering workshops and school visits

An important part of the Women in Engineering Initiative is raising the awareness of engineering as a potential career option among girls.

School groups are invited to attend day-long engineering workshops on campus throughout the year, several of which are tailored specifically for girls. In addition, schools can request a visit at their school, where students can hear about the diverse and interesting career options presented by an engineering degree and participate in an engineering-related activity in the class. Current engineering students take part in these visits so they can talk about their own experiences and provide positive role models.

Women in Engineering camps

The University of New South Wales has hosted two summer Women in Engineering camps for 20 to 25 exceptional female senior students from high schools across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.

The students are immersed in a five-day program in January where they work with each other and with mentors including current students and academics on activities that showcase the diversity of engineering disciplines and applications. They participate in a number of networking events and site visits including a Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb.

Of the 12 participants who were starting Year 12 that attended the 2013 Women in Engineering Camp, nine enrolled in engineering at the University of New South Wales in 2014.

When asked how the camp helped with their career goals, these were some of the responses:

“It has shown me that girls can do engineering as well, and to a high standard! After meeting several women interested in the same type of engineering that I am, at the networking function, it has allowed me to get a different perspective, instead of always talking to men about it!”

“The camp has allowed me to fully understand what engineering is and has answered my questions about my career goals. Also, meeting like-minded women has further motivated me to pursue engineering.”

“I feel that I have a much better understanding of the engineering schools at UNSW and have a better idea for what I would like to study in the future. It's been really inspiring to hear so many people at different stages of their engineering careers talk about how much they love what they do and how pivotal some of the changes they bring about can be.”

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Encouraging female engineers: University of Queensland

The University of Queensland’s Women in Engineering program is a leader in Australia having recorded a significant increase in the incoming undergraduate engineering student cohort of 24.4 per cent in 2014, up from 21.2 per cent in 2013. This is the highest ever female intake at the University of Queensland and places the university well above the state, national and Group of Eight averages.

The program was established as a university-led, industry-funded initiative to address the gender disparity in engineering at both the tertiary and industry levels. The program’s goal is to increase the total University of Queensland undergraduate engineering female enrolment from its current 20 per cent to 30 per cent by 2023.

Together with the University of Queensland, the program’s industry partners, Rio Tinto, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association and the Australian Power Institute, are committed to sharing program findings with other tertiary institutions and industry so that greater female participation can be realised on a national and global scale.

The Women in Engineering program largely centres on its comprehensive high school outreach program. It introduces and inspires female high school students to consider engineering studies through on-campus and in-school interactive workshops, careers’ events, expos and other high school outreach activities.

The Women in Engineering program also hosts two flagship events for high school students. The Engineering Futures Evening is for Years 10 to 12 female students and their teachers and parents. This event comprises guest speakers, networking and a student and industry expo. Another significant event is the Women in Engineering Explore Engineering Day for female Year 12 students. The day allows students to more deeply explore a range of engineering fields through interactive workshops.

In 2013, its first year of operation, the program directly engaged with over 600 female high school students from 47 Queensland schools. This is on track to increase in 2014.

As students transition from high school to university and throughout their University of Queensland student experience the Women in Engineering program supports and encourages them in order to retain the next generation of female engineers.

To this end, the program hosts several current student events for networking and industry engagement. It also has a Student Leadership Team, comprising 15 young women from different year levels and engineering disciplines, who represent the program at events for current and prospective students. By increasing connections with industry and other students, the program offers students opportunities to build networks that will benefit their future professional careers.

For more information on the UQ Women in Engineering program visit the program website at eait.uq.edu.au/women-in-engineering.

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http://www.eait.uq.edu.au/women-in-engineering

AWPA’s Manufacturing workforce study highlighted the Women who weld program run by the Queensland Government’s Manufacturing and Engineering Gateway to Industry Schools Program.360 It provides pre-vocational exposure to women interested in a career in welding and ensures a safe and supportive environment for women to gain an understanding of welding careers. Participants for the program were chosen from a diverse range of ages and backgrounds, including high school students, Indigenous Australian women and unemployed women. Participants also have the opportunity to transition into an apprenticeship, which a number of women have achieved since the program’s commencement. Industry response to the program has been overwhelmingly positive. While initially hesitant in recruiting apprentices from the program, many firms have identified a number of advantages of employing female welders including greater attention to detail and superior fine motor skills. Employers also found that women employees contributed to improving the workplace culture.

Due to the success of the program, a TAFE-funded follow-up was held for an additional 15 students, again resulting in a number of participants moving into apprenticeships. Several one-day sessions for girls in Year 10 have also been carried out across high schools in Queensland to expose students to career pathways that may not have otherwise been considered.361

Strategies by employers to recruit female engineers include targeted graduate programs, mentoring programs, preferential hiring opportunities and gender pay equality targets. They are usually tied to improving business outcomes and productivity, rather than addressing the gender implications of workplace culture and roles in engineering.

AWPA’s female focus group participants reported positive experiences of recruitment practices in engineering. They stated that most employers seemed to be keen on employing women engineers and some even implied that being a woman was a ‘bonus’ when applying for jobs. They also reported overall positive experiences in the workplace where women were respected and treated as equals. Mentoring, peer support groups and flexible work options were identified as best practices in supporting women to stay in engineering. The participants were divided on the role of women-specific support groups, which some of them thought highlighted their minority status. They also noted that models available in countries such as Finland and Norway offered significantly better conditions than in Australian workplaces to support women in the engineering workplaces.362

Many Australian firms provide paid parental leave provisions that go beyond what is legally required and include provisions for the male parent to take leave.363 Indeed 46 per cent of mining companies offer paid paternity leave, greater than what is found across the whole workforce (approximately 38 per cent).364 The power engineering industry focuses on advertising (language and imagery) and

360 Skills Tech Australia, 2013, Pioneering initiative for women to enter welding trade, skillstech.tafe.qld.gov.au/about_us/media_centre/media_releases/2012/august/women-enter-welding-trade.html, accessed 4 March 2014. 361 AWPA, 2014, Manufacturing workforce study. 362 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 363 CA and MCA, submissions to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 364 MCA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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recruitment shortlisting practices, promotion opportunities and increased participation of women in graduate program pools amongst its strategies to increase female representation.365 However, it is also important to note that 90 per cent of engineering is full-time employment and therefore there needs to be a cultural shift to provide for more part-time and flexible employment. These arrangements could help to retain staff and manage downturns arising from intermittency of work.

Consult Australia undertook a survey of member firms, Workforce diversity industry snapshot 2013, in order to provide quantitative data to identify areas in the careers of female employees which may require greater attention. This was to ensure that the business reaped the benefits of diverse and inclusive workplaces. The survey identified differences in pay, turnover, age at seniority levels and other factors to identify where further work should be directed.366 Consult Australia has also initiated the Male Champions of Change program which has attracted several influential business leaders as advocates for diversity (see case study following).

365 API, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 366 CA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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Industry championing change: Consult Australia

Consult Australia member firms understand that promoting diversity and inclusion are business issues, and they are taking action to strengthen the pipeline of diverse talent in traditionally male-dominated industries.

The Charter of the Consult Australia Champions of Change commits signatories (CEOs and regional Managing Directors of some of Consult Australia’s premier member firms) to actively advance equality across their business and to act as advocates for the consulting industry. This is important because the talents of employees with broad experiences in their professional and personal lives deliver productivity, problem solving and business success dividends.

The charter particularly focuses on gender diversity and just some of the activities include:

• changing workplace culture and mindset and empowering both women and men to advance gender equality in the company

• adopting and implementing employment policies and practices that eliminate gender discrimination in careers in areas such as recruitment, hiring, succession, pay, promotion and development

• developing mechanisms to foster balance between work and family life for women and men • being spokespersons for the promotion of gender equality, both individually and collectively within the

consulting sector • working together to increase the dialogue among peers – and create peer pressure – to build the

network of consulting CEO Champions.

There are currently 15 champions:

• AECOM, Chief Executive Officer—Australia and New Zealand, Michael Bachelor • Arup, Chair and Chief Executive Officer—Australasia Region, Peter Bailey • BECA, Managing Director—Australia, James Wright • Brown Consulting, Managing Director, Gary Spence • GHD General Manager—Australia and New Zealand, Phillip Duthie • Golder Associates, Managing Director and Principal, Adam Kilsby • Hyder Consulting, Managing Director and Chair—Australia, Greg Steele • MWH Global Inc., Managing Director, Government and Infrastructure—Australia, Mark Bruzzone • Norman, Disney and Young, Chief Executive Officer, Ian Hopkins • Singtel Optus, Managing Director Australia, Melvyn Maylin • Parsons Brinckerhoff, Managing Director—Australia–Pacific, Mark Dimmock • pitt&sherry, Managing Director, John Pitt • Jacobs SKM, Group Vice President, ANZ Infrastructure and Environment, Michael Shirley • SMEC, Chief Operating Officer—Australia and New Zealand, Hari Poologasundram • URS Corporation, Managing Director—Australia, Bob McGowan

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In 2013 the Australian Human Rights Commission released Women in male-dominated industries: a toolkit of strategies, to increase recruitment and support retention of women in male-dominated industries.367 The strategy provides employers with practical examples of successful approaches to attract, retain and develop women in all industries, but particularly those with a traditionally masculine workforce such as mining, construction and utilities. Its measures include developing activities around the following themes:

attraction—such as developing job advertisements that particularly target and are attractive to women through the use of inclusive language and imagery and provide information about inclusivity measures such as workplace flexibility, and open engagement with women in communities, schools, universities and TAFEs

recruitment—through strict merit-based processes and diverse recruitment teams that actively broaden the pool of available candidates and obtain feedback from women applicants at each stage of the recruitment process

retention—through top-down visible leadership, open commitment and involvement of senior management in mentoring, providing and participating in an inclusive working environment, providing support and zero tolerance policies for sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination

development—through implementing transparent and merit-based promotion and succession, ensuring women are able to access the development necessary for career progression, and ensuring senior leaders are committed to obtaining these goals.368

Engineers Australia’s Women in Engineering National Committee coordinates a number of activities with each state and territory division’s Women in Engineering committee, supporting and promoting the participation of Engineers Australia’s women members.369

The Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia is developing a workforce theme for its existing Infrastructure Sustainability Rating Tool, a voluntary rating scheme used by industry stakeholders to assess the sustainability credentials of infrastructure projects. Its existing themes on which projects are rated include management and governance, resources and ecology, emissions, pollution and waste, innovation and people and places. Its future workforce theme will expand on these to cover workforce health and safety, capability and capacity, industrial relations and diversity and inclusion.370 Through the last category, projects will be publicly rated on how well their proponents and contractors perform on inclusive employment, workplace flexibility, diverse organisational structures and cultural awareness measures.371 Through this tool the council envisions that workforce sustainability will be a feature of leading firms and a competitive advantage in obtaining procurement contracts, and will provide a framework for firms to shape their sustainability policies.

367 Australian Human Rights Commission, 2013, Women in male-dominated industries: a toolkit of strategies, humanrights.gov.au/publications/women-male-dominated-industries-toolkit-strategies-2013, accessed 6 June 2014. 368 Ibid., pp. 7–11. 369 Engineers Australia, 2014, Women in Engineering National Committee, engineersaustralia.org.au/women-engineering, accessed 6 June 2014. 370 Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA), 2014, IS rating themes and categories, isca.org.au/images/pdf/is_rating_themes_and_categories.pdf, accessed 6 June 2014. 371 ISCA, 2014, Workforce theme development prospectus, isca.org.au/images/files/tool/2014-05-14_Workforce_Theme_Development_Prospectus_Rev_4.pdf, accessed 6 June 2014.

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5.2 Continuing barriers to women’s participation in the engineering workforce As noted previously, despite significant efforts by employers and education providers, women’s participation in the engineering workforce has shown little improvement in recent years. There are significant barriers to women’s engagement in engineering at all levels of the skills pipeline into engineering. In a context where engineering is still largely considered a male-dominated profession, identifying systemic issues and transforming them is key to making changes at all levels of the skills pipeline into engineering.

The barriers to women’s participation in the engineering workforce begin at school levels where, as discussed before in Chapter Three, girls’ participation in STEM-related courses continues to be low. Targeted career advice has been identified as a key factor in influencing girls to choose engineering studies. International research and experience has provided some insights into similar issues faced by other countries as well as possible models of strategies to address entrenched stereotypes and gendered issues in engineering.

A recent survey of women engineers in the United Kingdom found ‘awareness of the choices a degree in engineering would subsequently bring them had been an important factor when many women engineers were making their choice of undergraduate course at university’.372 Other influencing factors included inspiring teachers, family members who were engineers and opportunities to be exposed to female engineers. In addition respondents also suggested that a focus on ‘engineers solving problems for developing world and disadvantaged people’ was important to attract more girls into engineering careers.

Over the past 75 years Turkey has succeeded in moving from being a society with virtually no female participation in engineering to proportions higher than those currently found in USA or Europe.373 A survey of women engineers from Turkey found that family culture, knowledge about engineering and high status of engineering were factors which influenced their choice. The research found that an important motivating factor for many women was the satisfaction expressed by relatives who worked in engineering jobs and the lack of gender bias in their counselling interaction with these relatives. In addition, relatives helped the students clarify their career goals by explaining to them ‘what an engineer does’ and ‘what possible opportunities are available for them after graduation’.374

Research from India, which has substantially increased the participation of women in engineering from almost none to figures that match many western countries, also supports the importance of ‘substantial parental encouragement’ and perceptions of the prestige of engineering careers. In addition, it also found that, unlike in many other countries, some engineering disciplines (such as those related to computer engineering) were perceived to be female-friendly.375 This does not correlate with the way in which the

372 WISE, 2013, Britain’s got talented female engineers, wisecampaign.org.uk/files/useruploads/files/resources/atkins_britains_got_talented_female_engineers.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014, p. 16. 373 Smith AE and Dengiz B, 2009, Women in engineering in Turkey—a large scale quantitative and qualitative examination, European Journal of Engineering Education 35 (1), p. 12. 374 Ibid., p. 9. 375 Gupta N, 2012, ‘Women undergraduates in engineering education in India: a study of growing participation’, Gender, Technology and Development 16 (2), pp. 170–171.

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same disciplines are viewed in many western countries including Australia,376 which implies that gendered perceptions of engineering disciplines are not absolute and are strongly influenced by cultural contexts.

Australian career promotion efforts in engineering reportedly focus on the industrial role of engineering. One of Engineers Australia’s Young Engineers, Nikki Mead, stated that her Masters level engineering course in France in 2010 showed her that ‘while most engineering courses in Australia appear devoid of social relevance, the engineering courses in France addressed social issues particularly in developing countries where you could directly link the profession to the improvement of quality of life’.377 Retaining outdated stereotypes of engineering work is ‘at odds with the reality of engineering work’ and can discourage women who, arguably, ‘prefer to work in people-oriented professions’. Mead calls for promoting engineering as a ‘creative, diverse profession that does practical work, impacts on society, and involves both technical and social expertise’.378

Engineers Australia has sought to highlight the social dimensions of engineering in its documentary The humanitarian engineer, which aims to celebrate engineering and ‘its power to enrich the human condition’.379 It aims to explore the idea that ‘engineering is inherently humanitarian, improving society and human wellbeing—both by accident and by intention’ and to ‘measure the value of intention’.380

Some of these findings from international research were confirmed by participants in AWPA’s focus groups, where women identified family members, family culture and inspiring role models as significant influencing factors in their decision to choose engineering studies.

In relation to the skills pipeline from tertiary education VET qualification pathways, women in trades face significant barriers to entering relevant occupations—particularly in manual trades—and this has not changed significantly over the last three decades despite significant government effort.381 The participation of women in engineering trades has shown smaller progress when compared to some professional engineering occupations such as surveyor, metallurgist, chemical engineer and architect where women’s participation has doubled since the 1980s.382

As shown in the examination of STEM pathways for female students in Chapter Three, cultural perceptions and gender stereotypes about work are barriers to women choosing occupations perceived to be ‘male’.

376 AWPA, 2013, ICT workforce study. 377 Engineers Australia, 2013, Young leaders, engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/shado/Resources/engineers_australia_youngleaders2013_final.pdf, accessed 17 June 2014, pp. 13–14. 378 Ibid. 379 Ong S, The Humanitarian Engineer, available at the-humanitarian-engineer.com, accessed 16 June 2014. 380 Ibid. 381 Shewring F, 2009, The female 'tradie': Challenging employment perceptions in non-traditional trades for women, NCVER occasional paper, ncver.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/10ebf94c-d356-4b74-a322-572329a18cfc/The-female-tradie-2100.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=10ebf94c-d356-4b74-a322-572329a18cfc, accessed 4 June 2014. 382 Women NSW, 2013, Women in trades: the missing 48 percent, Women NSW Occasional Paper, Department of Family and Community Services, New South Wales Government, women.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/268010/3000_WNSW-OccasionalPaper_document_ART.pdf, accessed 4 June 2014, p. 14.

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Education and training pathways further reproduce and intensify the labour market divisions between female and male jobs, especially in STEM occupations.383

Perceptions of manual work, both by employers and potential female trades workers, are still very much oriented along traditional lines, in which manual work is men’s work, with long and inflexible hours. Women are sometimes seen as less physically able and ‘useless’ to train and employ as they ‘get pregnant and leave’ and management of family commitments are assumed to be the sole responsibility of women.384 These perceptions are particularly prevalent for women in ‘non-traditional’ roles, such as those involved in engineering-related trades and technical roles.

The relationship between employers and apprentices is an important factor in the completion of individual students across engineering VET qualifications,385 and it is even more so for female apprentices.386 Unfortunately very few women in the NCVER’s 2009 study of female apprentices in manual trades reported positive apprentice–employer relationships.387

Outside of family business environments, employer support of part-time employment or variation to the traditionally long hours is limited, although this is changing in some areas. A good example from the mining industry of strategies to recruit women in male-dominated roles is the employment of women as truck drivers. The shortage of truck drivers and recognition of the better safety records of women has led companies to recruit women for these roles, providing them with flexible work arrangements such as shifts that work around or within school hours.388 As noted by Women NSW in 2013, ‘women are more likely to work part-time than male tradespeople, and to express dissatisfaction with the work-life balance available in technical and trades occupations’.389 As a consequence, many women in trades operate as sole traders, allowing them to manage their commitments around their contracts.390

Strategies to improve the retention of women in the trades, especially at the time of their apprenticeships, are similar to those that apply to all engineering trade and technical apprentices, especially surrounding employer support and mentoring. Of note is the fact that, according to the 2011 Household, income and labour dynamics in Australia survey data, women in non-traditional trades were more likely to remain in their occupations than those in the traditional female trades, although overall, women were less likely to stay in a trade than men.391 One additional aspect is the tendency for women to enter trades and VET

383 Women NSW, 2013, Women in trades: the missing 48 percent. 384 Shewring F, 2009, The female 'tradie': Challenging employment perceptions in non-traditional trades for women, p. 21. 385 ACIL Allen Consulting, 2014, Engineering apprentices: review of qualification completions in engineering trades apprenticeships, p. 25 386 Shewring F, 2009, The female 'tradie': Challenging employment perceptions in non-traditional trades for women, p. 20. 387 Ibid., p. 20. 388 Heber A, 2013, ‘Downer EDI Mining granted anti-discrimination exemption to employ more women’, Australian Mining, miningaustralia.com.au/news/downer-edi-mining-granted-anti-discrimination-exem, accessed 4 June 2014. 389 Women NSW, 2013, Women in trades: the missing 48 percent, p. 34. 390 Women and Manual Trades 2001, Women in construction conference report, Women and Manual Trades, London, cited in Shewring F, 2009, The female 'tradie': Challenging employment perceptions in non-traditional trades for women, p. 21. 391 Women NSW, 2013, Women in trades: the missing 48 percent, p. 30.

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qualifications at later stages in their lives than men. This requires a focus on targeted training that recognises prior learning while addressing the requirements of in-demand occupations.392

Women who choose higher education pathways into engineering benefit from ‘women in engineering’ programs (discussed in the previous section) offered by some education providers. As discussed previously, in addition to these support and mentoring programs, it has been suggested that engineering curricula and teaching need to address issues of inclusion of women. Some examples of inclusive curricula include gender analysis of design processes, humanitarian engineering study units, compulsory diversity lectures, increasing the numbers of female lecturers and academics in engineering faculties and incorporating projects using verbal and hand-on work.393

As noted previously, some women are reluctant to join support groups at university and at workplaces as this was seen to draw attention to their minority status. AWPA’s stakeholder consultations found that these statements have to be viewed in the context of the fact that often the way for women to survive in male dominated cultures is to condone the culture. Reservations by some women engineers about initiatives targeted at women could therefore be seen as indicative of this behaviour rather than as a reflection of the value of these programs. In such workplace cultures, women often find they have to choose between their identity as a woman and as an engineer while men rarely face the same choice.394 Recent research on the gendered issues in engineering also suggests that where women deny the gender implications of their position they also, inadvertently, make invisible the systemic issues around gender politics in engineering which need to be transformed in order to create significant improvements in women’s participation in engineering.395

Workplace culture and women in engineering While stakeholders and focus group participants acknowledged the progress workplaces have made in addressing the needs of women engineers, they also recognised that several barriers continue to exist to limit women’s participation. These include remuneration gaps, paucity of part-time work, uptake and availability of flexible work options and persistence of gendered roles and expectations by managers and colleagues. Women are also affected by the continuous professional development requirements of engineering registration that result in their registration lapsing when they take career breaks such as maternity leave.

392 Shewring F, 2009, The female 'tradie': Challenging employment perceptions in non-traditional trades for women, p. 25. 393 Mills JE, Franzway S, Gill J and Sharp R, 2014, Challenging knowledge, sex and power: gender, work and engineering. 394 Ibid., p. 137. 395 Ibid., p. 136.

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AWPA’s focus groups on women engineers highlighted discrepancies in remuneration levels between male and female engineers. They attributed it to the difficulties women face in negotiating remuneration levels on par with the male engineers, as indicated by the anecdote below,

Well I went into a job interview last year and I asked for something that I thought was my package and I got that as my base. So it’s pointed out to me that I was asking for 10 per cent less than I should have been, right? So women do tend to ask for less than they should and unless you have someone that you can talk to.396

Professionals Australia’s annual engineering salary survey report also indicates remuneration levels are lower for women than for men. In 2012 the average starting salary package for male graduates was $77,652 and for females $74,720.397

The focus group participants highlighted the difference in ‘confidence’ levels between them and their male colleagues and the fact that men were part of networks which provided them with access to comparable information on remuneration levels and other work-related matters. Research into ‘professional role confidence’ (‘individual’s confidence in their ability to fulfil the expected roles, competencies, and identity features of a successful member of their profession’398) for women has argued that ‘women and men develop different levels of professional role confidence in heavily gender-typed professions’.399 Women have to overcome cultural stereotypes and gendered workplace cultures and therefore have greater difficulties than their male colleagues in attaining and expressing their professional role confidence.

Employers report that part-time and job-sharing work arrangements are not effective, as knowledge related to specific projects ‘is more often than not detailed in the engineers head’ and companies report negative outcomes.400 Other stakeholders note that project-based work lends itself more to part-time arrangements if these can be structured into job designs and project planning.401 In addition, major employers in mining are considering options such as job-share and part-time work including in fly-in fly-out work where rosters are planned to accommodate workers who have childcare responsibilities.402

Engineers Australia’s survey has found that where flexible workplace arrangements are available, there is low uptake and these are underused in the engineering workforce.403 AWPA’s focus group consultations found that advertised flexibility policies are often implemented only at the whim of managers. In addition, there were implicit perceptions about these policies in some workplaces. For example, participants expressed concerns about sharing news about pregnancy for fear of being made redundant, especially

396 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 397 APESMA, 2013, Professional engineer remuneration survey, December, cited in Engineers Australia, 2013, The engineering profession: a statistical overview, p. 83. 398 Cech E, Rubineau B, Silbey S and Seron C, 2011, ‘Professional role confidence and gendered persistence in engineering’, American Sociological Review 76 (5), p. 642. 399 Ibid. 400 RCSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 401 Consultation notes from the meeting with Women in Engineering, University of New South Wales for AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce study. 402 MCA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 403 Engineers Australia, 2012, Survey of working environment and engineering careers, p. 27.

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between projects. As a solution, participants suggested mainstreaming flexibility provisions (for example, making it ‘parental’ leave instead of ‘maternity’ leave) so that it moves from, as noted by a focus group participant, ‘women need it [be]cause they have babies to parents need it [be]cause they have babies’.404

The survey of working women by Professionals Australia also found respondents believed that ‘working part-time has or would have an impact on their career’. They also indicated that when they worked part-time, ‘they were unnecessarily prevented from undertaking development opportunities or certain types of work’.405

Several stakeholders indicated that younger workers, both men and women, often prefer flexible work arrangements, taking these issues out of the realm of marginal programs.406 Strategies targeting women—such as flexible workplaces and availability of part-time work arrangements—are increasingly relevant to men who wish to find work-life balance. Furthermore, unless these strategies are mainstreamed they may only serve to marginalise women and lead to low uptakes of these strategies by them.

AWPA’s focus group participants also drew attention to other workplace culture issues including having to fight to gain the respect of male colleagues in some engineering workplaces, such as in construction. There were also implicit judgements made about women engineers who combined their careers with mothering, where a woman engineer was not tasked with a field trip because she had [teenage] children, despite the fact that her male colleague who was given that task also had children, much younger in age.407 Roles such as social events, organising coffee and tea, taking minutes and other ‘not high-value work’ were relegated to women, as their colleagues ‘subconsciously’ fitted them into gender roles.408

Transforming these subconscious biases in the engineering workforce requires addressing the systemic gender politics inherent in engineering roles and workplaces. Research indicates that,

when individuals or groups wilfully refuse to acknowledge or care that the experience of being an engineer is deeply affected by gender, that engineering work and work-place culture is structured by gender inequity and that women always need to do additional work to earn respect … the effect contributes to the retention of men’s advantage.409

Programs that challenge gender inequity in engineering have to incorporate concepts such as confronting existing gender politics, the ways in which gendered issues are made invisible or overlooked, the risks for advocates and activists and how the outcomes of such programs can be interpreted. This requires ‘transformative leadership that engages all members of the engineering organisation’.410 At the individual level, female engineers have to understand that while they may have ‘been creative in constructing their

404 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 405 APESMA, 2010, Women in the professions: the state of play 2009–10, p. 8. 406 ACED and RCSA, submissions to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 407 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 408 Ibid. 409 Mills JE, Franzway S, Gill J and Sharp R, 2014, Challenging knowledge, sex and power: gender, work and engineering, p. 139. 410 Ibid., p. 141.

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own solutions, much more would be achieved through collective action’.411 The importance of having a critical mass of peers who are women was also highlighted in the research from Turkey, where the conclusion was that ‘women who feel isolated and alienated are more likely to leave the profession’.412

Engineers Australia is one peak body that has created strong visibility for women in engineering issues by, in recent years, voting in two women as national president. It also acknowledges the ongoing ‘attitudinal and cultural’ barriers in engineering workplaces.413 Other stakeholders report very positive responses from workplaces for strategies such as flexible work patterns. AWPA’s consultations found that ‘women in engineering’ programs at universities are creating the next generation of engineers who could potentially challenge many of the systemic issues which continue to limit the participation of women in engineering. Industry has a key role to play in providing flexible workplaces and working closely with education providers to promote engineering as a career in which women can feel valued, free of harassment and outdated perceptions of women’s capabilities.

Recommendation 8

That the attraction of women to engineering study and careers and the retention of women in engineering occupations are enhanced by industry:

a) maintaining and expanding workplace programs to support women engineers by targeting gendered workplace cultures and roles and by mainstreaming workplace flexibility measures to include both men and women; and

b) working with education providers to increase and strengthen ‘women in engineering’ programs by providing access to role models of women engineers and other means to mentor female students in engineering.

5.3 Conclusion Boosting the participation of women in engineering has been acknowledged as an important way forward for the engineering workforce. AWPA’s focus group participants, who were in pre-apprenticeship programs at school level, were positive about their ability to overcome the gender bias in the trades. They believed that in the future there would be more women in trades as they would be less affected by ‘closed doors’ into those careers.

While several strategies are in place in educational institutions and in workplaces to tackle this challenge, addressing systemic issues of gendered roles and environments is the next step in advancing the issue of women’s participation in engineering.

411 Ibid. 412 Smith AE and Dengiz B, 2009, Women in engineering in Turkey—a large scale quantitative and qualitative examination, European Journal of Engineering Education 35 (1), p. 12. 413 Engineers Australia, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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Chapter Six: Career pathways for mature-aged workers and improving the participation of Indigenous Australians

The age profile of professional engineers and engineering trades workers and technicians is similar to the age profile of all occupations, with some notable differences see (Figure 15). The median age is marginally younger, at 39 and 38 years for engineering professionals and engineering trades and technical workers respectively compared to 40 years for all occupations. Over 78 per cent of engineering professionals are aged between 25 and 64 years of age, compared to around 67 per cent of engineering-related trades workers. There are significantly less engineering professionals aged between 15 to 24 years (6.2 per cent) compared to engineering-related trade workers (17.1 per cent) and the all occupations average (15.3). Mature age workers, or those over 45, represent 36.2 per cent of engineering professionals and 36.6 per cent of engineering trades. This is slightly lower than the all industries average of 39.9 per cent.

Figure 15: Age profile for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2011

Source: ABS, 2011, Census of population and housing.

Engineering workplaces recognise that the skills, corporate knowledge and experience of mature-aged engineers are critical to their businesses, but this is not always reflected in the actual employment experiences of mature-aged engineering workers. Engineering workplaces face challenges in retaining their mature-aged engineers. Stakeholders consulted by AWPA for this report acknowledge little is being done currently in the engineering workforce to retain the experience and skills of mature-aged engineering workers. Indeed, some stakeholder surveys indicate that mature-aged workers are subjected to disproportionate levels of workplace discrimination, including bullying and harassment. Engineers Australia’s 2012 survey found discrimination in the workplace increased with age, with 17.6 per cent of men and 15.9 per cent of women surveyed reporting discrimination. The same survey also reported that

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bullying ‘appears to be an age-related phenomenon’ with high incidences of bullying in older age cohorts, especially for women.414

Mature-aged trades workers and technicians in the engineering workforce face particular barriers related to the physical demands of many of these occupations. People are perceived as ‘old’ in these occupations earlier than in others.415 Further, in many of these occupations there is a paucity of progression paths into senior technical roles or management roles and part-time work and pathways to retirement are also more difficult to source than in professional engineering occupations. Technical and trade occupations make,

greater physical demands on their workers […] and older tradesmen voluntarily quit relatively early and take up alternative employment, say as VET teachers, because they find their former employment too hard as they get older.416

AWPA’s Resources sector skills needs report 2013 found that some of the other barriers to employment of mature-aged trades and technical workers included stereotypes about their capacity to learn new technology, mismatch between their abilities and their work and inflexible work culture including limited opportunities for part-time and working from home arrangements. The study highlighted a range of strategies used by resources sector companies to retain their mature-aged workers including targeted training provisions and the utilisation of the skills and expertise of mature-aged workers as trainers by recruitment agencies and training providers.417

As various sectors transition to less manually-intensive work, particularly in the Resources and Manufacturing sectors, mature-aged workers with decades of skill in a particular area may find their knowledge becoming redundant. AWPA’s recent report on the Manufacturing sector workforce, which includes many engineering trades and technical occupations, noted that as the nature of manufacturing occupations becomes less labour-intensive, there may be opportunities to extend the working lives of skilled personnel by reskilling or upskilling mature-aged workers, particularly in digital literacy.418 Training that involves recognition of prior learning may also assist with the retention of older workers by helping them obtain formal qualifications that make them more attractive to employers.419 The report highlights that opportunities to utilise the skills of mature-aged workers include as acting mentors to younger or less experienced workers.420 However strategies such as mentoring roles and workplace flexibility provisions depend upon the size of companies, and smaller enterprises find it more difficult to provide for such measures.

414 Engineers Australia, 2012, Survey of working environment and engineering careers, pp. 53–54. 415 van Loo J, 2011, ‘Making the most of mature minds: issues, trends and challenges in making active ageing a reality’, in Griffin T and Beddie F (eds), Older workers: research readings, NCVER, ncver.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/3f7b19af-a1f4-4790-a309-b82729c334ff/2422.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=3f7b19af-a1f4-4790-a309-b82729c334ff, p. 18 416 Keating M, 2011, ‘Ageism and age discrimination in the labour market and employer responses’, in Griffin T and Beddie F (eds), Older workers: research readings, p. 66 417 AWPA, 2013, Resources sector skills needs report 2013, pp. 195–196. 418 AWPA, 2014, Manufacturing workforce study, p. 122. 419 Ibid. 420 Ibid., p. 123.

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AWPA’s mature-aged focus groups (between 25 and 50 years of industry experience) revealed a number of insights about the experience of senior engineers. Several participants reflected on the change in the nature of engineering employment which has shifted from largely public sector training and employment to private sector employment. Secure, long-term employment, in-house centres of experience and ongoing training previously provided by Australian Government and state government agencies was a strong motivation for several participants to join the engineering workforce.

Participants reported they perceived that the real issue is the general under-valuing of engineering skills in Australia.421 Engineers Australia argues that a range of factors have adversely impacted on engineering careers, resulting in loss of experienced engineers, including the loss of public sector structures (through the increasing outsourcing of engineering skills by the public sector) and increasing intermittency of engineering work.422 Furthermore, intermittent work may make it difficult to retain the licences, qualifications and ongoing professional development involvement necessary to remain engaged in an engineering occupation.

AWPA’s focus group consultations found that there was a consensus around the under-utilisation of engineering experience in workplaces. Participants agreed that in general, experience was ‘respected and valued but under-utilised’.423 Others cited instances where they had mentored a number of graduates only to be made redundant while the graduates were retained by the company. When asked whether it would have been better not to have shared their knowledge, participants stated that the issue was that the organisation was prepared to lose corporate knowledge before the young engineers had developed enough of their own.424

While there is a perception that engineers ‘never retire’,425 the attrition of experienced workers from the engineering workforce leads to loss of corporate knowledge and limits intergenerational transfer of knowledge.426 Mid-career and senior-level engineers are reported to be the most difficult to recruit, which presents challenges for replacing the skills and knowledge of retiring mature-age workers.427

6.1 Potential career pathways for technical and management roles in the engineering workforce Mature-aged engineers have limited career pathways if they do not wish to undertake management roles or are not capable of undertaking these positions. Many engineers are passionate about their technical skills and unwilling to step into roles where these skills are not relevant. The technical skills of mature-age engineers are particularly in-demand ‘in workplaces that use methods or processes not taught to new

421 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 422 Engineers Australia, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 423 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 424 Ibid. 425 This information was provided during AWPA’s preliminary consultations for AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 426 ANET, 2010, Scoping our future: addressing Australia’s engineering skills shortage, pp. 25–26. 427 Consult Australia, 2009, Skills survey, issue 4, July, cited in ANET, 2010, Scoping our future: addressing Australia’s engineering skills shortage, p. 25.

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engineers’, however mature-aged engineers attempting to re-enter the engineering workforce must compete against new graduates.428

However, where mature-aged engineers focus on technical rather than management skills, this can impact on their career progression and remuneration levels. Participants in AWPA’s focus groups argued that many companies placed greater value on management skills than on technical skills:

So if you look at the company progression or what they call ‘career development cycles’, you will have most of the people’s pays and things linked with how many people they manage and if there are any profits sent up, while the engineers, if you’re really passionate about doing your engineering, you’re not in that circle. Your salary progression does not progress in the same way, so all that carries you is your passion for the job.429

Participants were concerned that experienced engineers who choose to remain in the technical stream throughout their careers may find themselves reporting to less experienced managers with significant gaps in technical skills. Senior engineers were also concerned about their technical skills losing currency, thereby making it difficult for them to re-enter the workforce should they lose their management roles:

But the thing that’s wrong with it is that you can end up with management skills, [losing] your technical skills, and if you lose your position as a senior manager, you’re going to find it very difficult to go back into the workforce. In my case, I worked past normal retirement age but after the [company name redacted] debacle occurred basically they walked away from it, I fell back on my technology and for the last fifteen years, it’s served very well. Served me very well …430

Participants concluded that technical skills are specialised and vital to maintaining an engineer’s employability and that management skills are ‘not special’. In addition, participants also drew attention to the loss of vital technical experience and knowledge, which is critical in supporting new graduates and new employees with limited practical experience of engineering.

Engineers Australia recommends that the expansion of senior technical roles to enable ‘technical career pathways’431 and providing opportunities for promotion could help in the retention of engineering skills in the workforce. These pathways could also ensure that companies retain the skills and experience of their mature-aged workers.

Professionals Australia’s submission confirms that re-entry pathways into the engineering workforce are difficult to find. As they note in their submission, ‘recruiters are reported to favour young engineers and to actively discourage the engagement of mature-aged engineers. Older engineers are often required to re-train to meet the needs of the employment market they are seeking to re-enter’.432 Recruitment and

428 RCSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 429 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 430 Ibid. 431 Engineers Australia, 2012, Submission to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations References Committee Inquiry into the shortage of engineering and related employment skills, p. 13. 432 PA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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Consulting Services Association recommends that employers consider investing in refresher training programs that address the current preferences of experienced engineers to exit and re-enter the workforce, in order to retain and transfer their skills and experience.433

Career guidance plays an important role in ‘re-orienting persons with a baseline level of competence towards engineering later in life.’434 However, there are limited opportunities available for people who are not unemployed or made redundant to access lifelong career guidance.435 Mid-career entry pathways can also be achieved if pathways between the VET and higher education systems are easy to navigate.436 Consult Australia suggests that Industry Skills Councils have a role to play in facilitating these pathways and providing mid-career advice.437

Participants in AWPA’s focus groups drew attention to the important role played by professional bodies—such as Engineers Australia and the Instrument Society of America—in highlighting the importance of engineering roles. While Engineers Australia has developed Continuous Professional Development, it was felt that this needed to go beyond ‘generic competencies’ and include specialised technical capabilities gained through engineering practice.438 The Australian Council of Engineering Deans’ members have expressed a willingness to consider the ‘development and provision of specific education packages (including on-line) that would support mature-aged engineers to re-enter the workforce’.439 ANET has previously advocated grants for bridging courses to facilitate re-entry of mature-aged engineers back into the workforce.440

Recommendation 9

That the retention of mature-aged workers in engineering is improved by industry:

a) creating senior technical roles and structured mentoring positions to provide technical career pathways for mature-aged engineers and support for entry-level engineers; and

b) collaborating with education providers to develop a grants program for engineering bridging courses (including online delivery) for industry to allow re-entry into the workforce for mature-aged engineers.

Mentoring and re-training pathways for mature-aged engineering workers One of the key roles that mature-aged engineers can undertake is to mentor young engineers both within and outside of engineering workplaces. AWPA’s focus group participants noted that mentoring opportunities are not structured into workplace job designs and are often not valued or rewarded. As discussed earlier, in some cases it is perceived that mentors end up losing their jobs to their mentees. Participants also stated that mature-aged engineers looking for work wanted assistance to maintain their

433 RCSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 434 PA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 435 MSA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 436 CA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 437 Ibid. 438 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 439 ACED, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 440 King R, Dowling D and Godfrey E, 2011, Pathways from VET awards to engineering degrees: a higher education perspective, p. 39.

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technical knowledge and to find work—particularly those who had been educated overseas. They were however, generally unaware of professional development programs, career counselling or mentoring services already available through organisations such as Engineers Australia.441

AWPA’s focus group participants included some who had taken up mentoring roles. They noted that previously government agencies had developed many best practice approaches to mentoring. One participant described the facilitation of mentoring as follows:

We used to have a small number of large government owned corporations and rotation as an implicit part along with mentoring and networking. The three main things, [for learning] mentoring, networking and rotation— job rotation in those first five years.442

Engineers Australia’s Centre for Leadership and Management is an example of a mentoring network which aims to promote professional development and leadership capabilities and includes engineers who wish to ‘give back to your profession and work to help others learn and grow through your experiences’.443

Engineering workers working in trades and technical occupations require training support which is relevant to their experience and skills. VET re-training pathways which integrate Recognition of Prior Learning, short targeted pathways with ‘bite-size’ programs and flexible and user-friendly services are reported to be effective solutions to re-train and up skill mature-aged engineering workers wishing to transition into other roles.

Such a fluid system will require more pathways for learning, recognising that education and training is no longer a linear process, but one that demands cooperation across sectors (for example, the VET and university systems and between industries); strong alliances between the public, private and community sectors; and clever use of new technologies.444

Emerging opportunities for increasing the participation of mature-aged workers could be provided by the adoption of automation in sectors such as mining. As stated previously, AWPA’s Manufacturing workforce study also noted that several jobs in manufacturing will increasingly become less labour-intensive.445 This will result in a reduction in emphasis on physical capabilities in favour of a greater premium on experience which could allow for increased, more flexible participation of mature-aged engineers in relevant industries.446

441 Australian Council for Educational Research, 2014, Focus groups for informing AWPA’s engineering workforce study. 442 Ibid. 443 Engineers Australia, 2014, Centre for Engineering Leadership and Management, engineersaustralia.org.au/centre-engineering-leadership-and-management/about-us, accessed 12 June 2014. 444 Byrne P, 2011, One size does not fit all: training and re-training mature-age workers, ceda.com.au/media/109226/chapter%203.pdf, accessed 19 June 2014, pp. 26–7. 445 AWPA, 2014, Manufacturing workforce study, p. 122. 446 MCA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper.

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6.2 Participation of Indigenous Australians in the engineering workforce The participation of Indigenous Australians in the engineering workforce is very low, with just 0.4 per cent of engineering professionals identifying as Indigenous Australians, compared to 0.9 per cent for all professions. Participation of Indigenous Australians in engineering trades and technicians roles is similarly low, although slightly higher than the professions—1.5 per cent of engineering trades workers identify as Indigenous Australians, compared to 1.3 per cent of all technical and trades occupations.447

As illustrated in Figure 16, more Indigenous Australians complete VET engineering qualifications than higher education engineering qualifications.

Figure 16: Percentage of Indigenous workers in engineering occupations at 2011

Note that ‘Indigenous’ includes Aboriginals, Torres Strait Islanders and both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The ‘not stated’ category has been excluded. Source: ABS, 2011, Census of population and housing.

Figure 17 shows the total commencements and completions for Certificates III and IV engineering-related trades by Indigenous status. Indigenous commencements and completions are dramatically lower than

447 ABS, 2011, Census of population and housing. 126

non-Indigenous. However, the numbers of Indigenous commencements appear to be following a similar trend to non-Indigenous. This is reinforced in Table 16 which shows the percentage difference between the two increasing only slightly over the period from 2006 to 2012. Indigenous completions relative to non-Indigenous completions fluctuate more, peaking at 3.2 per cent in 2008 before dropping to 2.6 per cent in 2012. It should be noted that the number of Indigenous commencements and completions at the Certificate I and II level and Diploma level between 2006 and 2012 was negligible.

Figure 17: Certificate III/IV commencements and completions by Indigenous status for engineering-related trades, 2006–12

Note that the above data only displays individuals who have nominated either Indigenous or non-Indigenous, individuals in the ‘Not Known’ category has been excluded in the data above. Therefore the totals for the above table, will not match those on Table 16 which shows total commencements. Source: NCVER, 2013, VOCSTATS.

Table 16: Percentage of Indigenous to non-Indigenous Certificate III / IV commencements and completions for engineering-related trades

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Commencements 3.8 3.6 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.6 4.6 Completions 1.6 2.2 2.6 3.2 2.8 3.1 2.6 Note that the ‘Not Known’ category has been excluded in the data above. Source: NCVER, 2013, VOCSTATS.

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Pathways for Indigenous Australians into engineering qualifications In 2011, the Australian Teaching and Learning Council recommended a number of strategies to improve the participation of Indigenous Australian students in tertiary education, including mentoring support programs, cadetships, inclusive curriculum programs, family and community support and targeted student outreach activities.448 There are numerous programs which support the engagement of Indigenous Australians with engineering and some of these are highlighted in this section.

Engineering Aid Australia’s Indigenous Australian Engineering Summer School is an annual seven day live-in program at Curtin University in Western Australia and the University of Sydney in New South Wales. The program features a combination of engineering activities and networking events for approximately 20 students in each state. The students are nominated for the program by their schools.449 Engineering Aid Australia provides students who subsequently select to enrol in an engineering course with a scholarship to assist with their studies, and provides assistance in finding work experience and employment opportunities.450 A number of universities provide their own scholarships to former students in conjunction with the program, such as the University of Newcastle’s start-up scholarship that provides a travel and establishment grant for students.451

A number of engineering faculties also run summer schools and camps targeted at Indigenous senior secondary students with an interest in STEM subjects. These include the University of Queensland’s InspireU summer camp.452 In 2014 the camp, sponsored by Rio Tinto and the University of Queensland, will host 20 Indigenous Australian students entering Years 11 and 12 who are selected based on their interest in mathematics, science and engineering. The camp undertakes a range of activities on and off campus including site visits, laboratory experiments, mentoring sessions with young engineers and ‘hands-on’ experiences.

Engineers Without Borders runs inclusive engineering curricula programs at a number of institutions. These aim to create awareness about the benefits of cultural diversity, clarify assumptions underpinning engineering knowledge and practice, provide project and problem-based learning, and opportunities to participate in hands-on learning in Indigenous communities to assist with housing, infrastructure and water management projects.453 Engineers Without Borders and Engineers Australia are also building a network of

448 King R and Godfrey E, 2011, Pathways and access to engineering education: Opportunities to aid recruitment and retention of Indigenous students, Australian Teaching and Learning Council, olt.gov.au/system/files/resources/PP8-844%20UTS%20King%202011%20Indigenous_students%20recruitment%20and%20retention.pdf, accessed 3 June 2014. 449 Engineering Aid Australia, 2013, Progress report 2013, engineeringaid.org/eaa/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/EAA_Report2013_Final_WEB-4-copy1.pdf, accessed 2 June 2014. 450 Ibid. 451 University of Newcastle, 2014, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment Indigenous Australian Engineering Summer School (IAESS) Scholarship, www.newcastle.edu.au/scholarships/ENGB_022, accessed 3 June 2014. 452 University of Queensland, 2014, InspireU, eait.uq.edu.au/inspireu, accessed 3 June 2014. 453 King R and Godfrey E, 2011, Pathways and access to engineering education: Opportunities to aid recruitment and retention of Indigenous students, Australian Teaching and Learning Council.

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partners in the engineering sector to offer linked education and career pathways targeted at getting more Indigenous Australian students into engineering careers.454

Engineering peak bodies and some large Australian employers of engineers fund scholarships at universities for Indigenous students to study engineering and related fields. For example, APPEA has an Indigenous scholarship program that awards an annual scholarship at participating universities.455 BHP Billiton and Santos offer Indigenous-specific scholarships at the University of Adelaide.456 Rio Tinto has a whole-of-program scholarship arrangement with a number of universities specifically to support Indigenous students in the Pilbara with their studies.457 The Science and Industry Endowment Fund supports one scholarship at each participating university for Indigenous students and those from remote and rural areas enrolling in a science, information technology or engineering undergraduate degree that includes elements of mathematics, statistics or computation.458 A fuller list of the large array of scholarships available at universities for Indigenous students in engineering is available on the Indigenous Scholarships website, operated by The Aspiration Initiative.459

As a significant employer of Indigenous Australians, companies in the resources sector have a number of initiatives that are targeted at supporting Indigenous Australian students to achieve higher education qualifications.460 The Minerals Council of Australia noted that funding support for a whole-of-education pathway approach is required for Indigenous students at all levels of education, which includes assistance for relocation away from the students’ family and community support networks to metropolitan universities.461 This funding should also support the establishment of student networks and mentors, community champions who encourage the student and their family, and the development of school programmes in Indigenous communities that provide role models to young students.462

The Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) is a program for Indigenous students from Years 9–12 that aims to help them progress and graduate at the same rate as their non-Indigenous peers by connecting students with mentors. It has two main programs—the Core Program, which targets local Indigenous high school students who attend schools that are able to visit an AIME partner university

454 Engineers Without Borders Australia, 2014, Closing the gap in engineering, ewb.org.au/announcements/2/11389#sthash.Y9Nwql9J.dpuf, accessed 3 June 2014. 455 Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, 2014, APPEA Scholarships, appea.com.au/industry-in-depth/policy/skills/appea-scholarships, accessed 2 June 2014. 456 University of Adelaide, 2014, Scholarships available to students in engineering, computer & mathematical sciences, adelaide.edu.au/scholarships/undergrad/aboriginalislander/#ecms, accessed 3 June 2014. 457 The Aspiration Initiative, 2014, Pilbara Aboriginal scholarship programme, theaspirationinitiative.com.au/indigenous-scholarships/find-a-scholarship/area-of-study/agriculture-environmental-and-related-studies/908-pilbara-aboriginal-scholarship-programme, accessed 24 June 2014. 458 Science and Industry Endowment Fund, 2014, Undergraduate degree scholarships, sief.org.au/FundingActivities/Undergraduate.html, accessed 3 June 2014. 459 The Aspiration Initiative, 2014, Indigenous scholarships, theaspirationinitiative.com.au/indigenous-scholarships, accessed 24 June 2014. 460 MCA, submission to AWPA, 2014, Engineering workforce issues paper. 461 Ibid. 462 Ibid.

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campus on a weekly basis and the Outreach Program which extends the AIME experience to Indigenous high school students through a more intensive full day format.463

In 2013 more than 2,700 Indigenous students from 241 high schools participated in the AIME Program—twice the number in 2012—connecting with over 1,000 volunteer university student mentors across 23 campuses at 14 universities in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.464 Of the 220 AIME students who completed Year 12 in 2013 (113 in 2012), 59 transitioned to university (35 in 2012), with an additional 39 students who had previously completed an AIME Program also moving on to university.465 In recognition of the importance of this program, in 2013 the Australian Government provided $2.4 million to expand existing programs at the University of South Australia and Curtin University in Perth.

Existing strategies for employment of Indigenous Australians in engineering-related roles Many Indigenous Australians face numerous barriers to access long-term employment such as lack of job readiness, poor local labour markets, workplace discrimination, poor health and substance abuse and a lack of access to transport. A significant proportion of Indigenous Australians live outside urban centres466 thereby limiting their access to employment opportunities. Workplace strategies such as mentoring and flexible training solutions and work-readiness programs can boost the success of training efforts and enable the transition of Indigenous Australian employees to long-term employment.

The Australian Government is currently undertaking a Review of Indigenous Training and Employment Programmes, which will deliver ‘practical recommendations to ensure Indigenous training and employment services are targeted and administered to connect unemployed Indigenous people with real and sustainable jobs’.467 The review, chaired by Fortescue Metals Group chairman Andrew Forrest, received over 300 submissions from the public during its consultation period, and is due to report to the Prime Minister in June 2014.

In the minerals industry, which encompasses many of the engineering professions and trades, strategies have been employed to boost the representation of Indigenous Australians including culturally-appropriate recruitment and outreach programs, work-readiness programs and targeted retention programs, underlined by culturally-aware mentoring.468 Aspects that should be considered when designing mentoring

463 Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience, 2014, The AIME program, aimementoring.com/about/program, accessed 12 June 2014. 464 Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience, 2013, AIME annual report, reports.aimementoring.com/2013/pdf/aime-2013-annual-report.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014, p. 3. 465 Ibid., p. 3. 466 ABS, 2011, Estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, June estimates, cat. no. 3238.0.55.001. 467 Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2014, Review of Indigenous Training and Employment Programmes, indigenousjobsandtrainingreview.dpmc.gov.au/about, accessed 2 June 2104. 468 AWPA, 2013, Resources sector skills needs report 2013, pp. 188–190.

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programs include supportive workplace policies, mentor training (including cultural awareness training) and involvement of the mentor with the employee’s family and community.469

Engineers Australia has developed a Reconciliation Action Plan470 to guide its members in the understanding of the cultural and traditional values of Indigenous Australians. It suggests that areas for action for Engineers Australia and its members and member organisations include building relationships, developing respect through cultural understanding and promoting education opportunities.

6.3 Conclusion While engineering workplaces can expand their strategies to retain mature-aged workers, they are proactive in relation to strategies to engage Indigenous Australian workers in the engineering workforce. In particular, companies in the resources sector have a number of programs to support and train Indigenous Australian workers as well as enable pathways for them into higher education qualifications.

469 Brereton D and Taufatofua R, 2010, Good practice in the mentoring of Indigenous employees, Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, University of Queensland, csrm.uq.edu.au/docs/Final%20mentoring%20web%20paper.pdf, accessed 24 June 2014, pp. 18–19. 470 Engineers Australia, 2011, Engineers Australia Reconciliation Action Plan, oldsite.reconciliation.org.au/getfile?id=368&file=Engineers+Australia+RAP+2011-2015.pdf, accessed 12 June 2014.

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Conclusion AWPA’s Engineering workforce study has proposed nine recommendations which build on previous work by stakeholders such as ANET and the Senate inquiry report into engineering skills. AWPA proposes that an engineering working group, similar to ANET, be set up as a collaborative forum of key industry, education providers and employee organisations, to carry the recommendations forward.

The recommendations included in this study address key themes such as strengthening the STEM skills of Australian school students and engineering career promotion strategies at school levels, extending WIL programs by building on the findings of the Australian Council of Engineering Deans’ pilot project, extending partnerships between industry and education providers to strengthen engineering curricula, promoting VET engineering-related pathways, and clarification of the value and role of para-professional, engineering associate and engineering technologist occupations to industry.

Australia benefits from the specialised skills provided by engineering workers who come through the various skilled migration streams. The study found that boosting the effective utilisation of the skills of skilled migrant engineering workers will also provide companies with specialist technical skills during periods of peak demand. Stakeholders already run a number of orientation programs for skilled migrant engineering workers and the study recommends these be expanded to improve outcomes for this cohort.

The study found that enterprises and education providers have initiated a number of strategies to enhance the engagement of women in engineering. Tackling gendered workplace roles and practices and mainstreaming flexible and part-time work are important to retain women in engineering careers. Accordingly the study recommends the expansion of workplace programs with a specific focus on gendered workplace cultures. The study also found that engineering workplaces lose the skills of its experienced mature-aged engineering workers due to paucity of workplace flexibility and technical career pathways. The study recommends that enterprises create senior roles and technical career pathways. It also recommends a collaborative initiative by enterprises and education providers to develop re-training programs for mature-aged engineering workers to re-enter the workforce.

Engineering-related skills and industries will power the future economic prosperity of Australia and drive innovative advances in key sectors such as Mining and Manufacturing. Increasing intersection of engineering work with sectors such as health, agriculture and energy will ensure that engineering skills underpin the emerging industries of the future. The intermittency of demand for engineering skills due to the roll-out of large infrastructure projects creates particular challenges for the skills pipeline into engineering. As outlined in this study, with collaborative effort from industry, education providers and other key stakeholders in engineering, Australia will be well placed to meet the challenges of the engineering skills demands of the future and develop effective solutions to meet periods of peak demand.

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Appendices

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Appendix A—Engineering occupations on the Specialised Occupations List

Table 17: Engineering occupations on the Specialised Occupations List

ANZSCO code Occupation Engineering professionals

1331 Construction Managers* 1332 Engineering Managers* 2331 Chemical and Materials Engineers 2332 Civil Engineering Professionals 2333 Electrical Engineers 2334 Electronics Engineers 2335 Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers 2336 Mining Engineers 2339 Other Engineering Professionals 2613 Software and Applications Programmers

263111 Computer Network and Systems Engineers 2633 Telecommunications Engineering Professionals

Engineering-related trades 3122 Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 3123 Electrical Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 3124 Electronic Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 3231 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers 3221 Metal Casting, Forging and Finishing Trades Workers 3222 Sheetmetal Trades Workers 3223 Structural Steel and Welding Trades Workers 3232 Metal Fitters and Machinists 3233 Precision Metal Trades Workers 3132 Telecommunications Technical Specialists

* These occupations are in the Managers ANZSCO classification, but have been grouped under Engineering Professionals. Source: AWPA, 2014, Specialised Occupations List.

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Appendix B—Stakeholders

The Engineering Workforce Study Issues Paper was sent to 37 stakeholders. The organisations and individuals listed below participated in the Engineering Roundtable and/or provided submissions.

Roundtable attendees

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) Australian Constructors Association Australian Council of Engineering Deans (ACED) Australian Industry Group Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Australian Power Institute (API) Consult Australia (CA) Department of Industry Engineers Australia (EA) Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia Male, Dr Sally, University of Western Australia Manufacturing Skills Australia (MSA) Office of the Chief Scientist Professionals Australia (PA) Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RCSA) Trevelyan, Professor James, University of Western Australia Stakeholders who provided additional input

Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) Department of Education Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development

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Appendix C—Unemployment rates for Engineers

Figure 18 and Figure 19 detail the unemployment rates for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades between 2006 and 2013 compared to the all-industries average for Professionals and all Technicians and Trade Workers and the average for all occupations.

Both figures show that the unemployment rate for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers was generally lower than the all occupations average. The exception to this trend was engineering-related trade workers from mid-2006 to mid-2007, which was probably a result of the global financial crisis.

Figure 18 shows that the unemployment rate for engineering professionals parallels the unemployment rate for all professionals and the all-industries average during the period. Since 2009 it has stayed marginally above the all professionals rate. The highest unemployment rate for engineering professionals was 2.5 per cent in 2009.

Figure 18: Unemployment rates for engineering professionals, 2006–13

Source: Department of Employment and AWPA calculations based on ABS, 2013, Labour force survey, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003; four-quarter average to November 2013.

Figure 19 highlights that engineering-related trades had a significantly lower rate of unemployment when compare to all Technician and Trades Workers, except for in the period around the global financial crisis. It was at its lowest rate in 2011. By 2013 it was only slightly under the rate for all Technicians and Trades Workers. At that time, engineering-related trades had the highest unemployment rate of around 3.3 per cent.

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Figure 19: Unemployment rates for Engineering-related trades, 2006–13

Source: Department of Employment and AWPA calculations based on ABS, 2013, Labour force survey, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003; four-quarter average to November 2013.

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Appendix D—Gender profile

Table 18 demonstrates that female participation rates in engineering vary greatly between occupations, from a high of 20.6 per cent in the Chemical and Material Engineers to zero in the Sheet Metal Trades Workers and Aircraft Maintenance Engineers.

Table 18: Gender percentage breakdown for engineering professionals and engineering-related trade occupations in 2013

ANZSCO Code Occupation Males (%) Females (%) 1331 Construction Managers 94.0 6.0 1332 Engineering Managers 93.3 6.7 2331 Chemical and Materials Engineers 79.4 20.6 2332 Civil Engineering Professionals 87.6 12.4 2333 Electrical Engineers 93.0 7.0 2334 Electronics Engineers 89.9 10.1 2335 Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers 94.4 5.6 2336 Mining Engineers 92.1 7.9 2339 Other Engineering Professionals 80.7 19.3 2613 Software and Applications Programmers 84.8 15.2 2631 Computer Network Professionals 90.8 9.2 2633 Telecommunications Engineering Professionals 81.9 18.1

Engineering professionals 89.6 10.4 3122 Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 92.5 7.5 3123 Electrical Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 95.0 5.0 3124 Electronic Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 85.1 14.9 3231 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers 100.0 0.0 3221 Metal Casting, Forging and Finishing Trades Workers 92.6 7.4 3222 Sheet Metal Trades Workers 100.0 0.0 3223 Structural Steel and Welding Trades Workers 99.4 0.6 3232 Metal Fitters and Machinists 99.2 0.8 3233 Precision Metal Trades Workers 95.5 4.5 3132 Telecommunications Technical Specialists 90.5 9.5

Engineering-related trades 98.3 1.7 2 Professionals 47.3 52.7 3 Technicians and Trades Workers 85.8 14.2 All Occupations 54.2 45.8


Figure 20 shows the trend for completions at the Bachelor degree level split by gender. Female domestic Bachelor completions increased by 7 percent between 2006 and 2012, while male domestic Bachelor completions increased by 14 per cent over the same period. Overseas student completions demonstrate a different trend, with male completions increasing by 50 per cent but female completions by only 47 per cent.

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Figure 20: Domestic and overseas Bachelor award course completions by field of study for Engineering and Related Technologies, 2006–12

Source: Department of Education, uCube.

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Appendix E – Median weekly full-time earnings

Table 19 show the median weekly full-time earnings for engineering occupations from 2007 to 2012. Engineering professionals’ median weekly full-time earnings were higher than the averages for all occupations and all Professionals. Mining Engineers, Chemical and Mineral Engineers, Other Engineering Professionals and Telecommunication Engineering Professionals experienced marked rises and decreases in their wages over the period.

Generally Mining Engineers and Engineering Managers earned the most over the period, earning an average of $2,239 and $1,941 per week before tax. In 2012, their wages reached a high of an average $2,876 and $2,031 per week, respectively. This is likely to reflect the skills shortage for these occupations at this time. During 2010–11, Chemical and Mineral Engineers experienced strong growth in their wages earning around $2,240 per week. However, their earnings have decreased sharply since then, falling to $1,495 per week in 2012.

Table 19 highlights the wide range in median earnings for engineering-related trades. Generally, around half of the engineering-related trades earned more when compared to the averages for all occupations and all Technicians and Trade Workers. The highest earning occupations over the period were Aircraft Maintenance Engineers ($1,500 per week from 2008 to 2009) and Electrical Engineering Draftspersons (above $1,500 per week from late 2009 to mid-2011, peaking at $1,750 per week in 2011). Broadly speaking, during the period, the range of median weekly earnings for engineering-related trades was less stable than that of the engineering professionals. This could reflect the fact that employment for Technicians and Trade Workers is more susceptible to the ebb and flows of engineering construction work.

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Table 19: Median weekly full-time earnings (before tax) for engineering professionals and engineering-related trades workers and technicians, 2007–12

ANZSCO Code

Occupation 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

1331 Construction Managers 1,280 1,329 1,400 1,500 1,500 1,541 1332 Engineering Managers 1,625 1,923 2,057 2,013 1,956 2,071 2331 Chemical and Materials Engineers 1,711 1,438 1,265 2,250 2,238 1,495 2332 Civil Engineering Professionals 1,472 1,495 1,500 1,634 1,596 1,850 2333 Electrical Engineers 1,472 1,540 1,610 1,450 1,802 1,864 2334 Electronics Engineers 1,265 1,380 1,564 1,323 1,625 1,841 2335 Industrial, Mechanical and Production

Engineers 1,472 1,532 1,500 1,443 1,610 1,610

2336 Mining Engineers 1,700 2,250 2,250 2,108 2,250 2,876 2339 Other Engineering Professionals 1,730 1,500 1,380 1,635 1,841 1,572 2613 Software and Applications Programmers 1,350 1,442 1,470 1,442 1,500 1,500 2631 Computer Network Professionals 1,380 1,500 1,380 1,450 1,500 1,750 2633 Telecommunications Engineering Professionals 1,200 1,438 1,250 1,500 2,071 1,917

2 Professionals 1,197 1,250 1,300 1,300 1,400 1,424 3122 Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 1,120 1,100 1,423 1,350 1,250 1,400 3123 Electrical Engineering Draftspersons and

Technicians 1,000 1,200 1,442 1,518 1,750 1,250


989 1,100 985 1,320 874 1,371

3231 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers 1,100 1,500 1,500 1,380 1,400 1,100 3221 Metal Casting, Forging and Finishing Trades

Workers 836 795 950 1,300 1,047 np

3222 Sheet Metal Trades Workers 740 1,120 932 1,000 1,100 850 3223 Structural Steel and Welding Trades Workers 915 925 970 1,058 1,135 1,141 3232 Metal Fitters and Machinists 1,150 1,035 1,200 1,266 1,250 1,500 3233 Precision Metal Trades Workers 975 850 1,053 865 800 900 3132 Telecommunications Technical Specialists 1,150 1,153 1,434 1,250 1,250 1,500

3 Technicians and Trades workers 992 1,029 1,110 1,171 1,183 1,266 All Occupations 940 1,000 1,000 1,050 1,100 1,150

Source: ABS, 2013, Employee earnings benefits and trade union membership, custom request. Data is for August of each year.

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