RECENT initiatives by the Federal Government and industry bodies are looking to solve Australia’s need for skilled labour by freeing up some of our restrictions with immigration, most notably, global travel restrictions that have been imposed by the pandemic.
At odds with this however is the changes to our technical and professional levels of training for our own citizens.
When we draw skilled migrants from other countries, we are in no uncertain terms, strip mining their talent for our benefit and to their detriment. Often, their need far exceeds our own to retain skilled workers, particularly in areas such as health, engineering and education.
Australia currently spends more than $3B a year on providing development assistance to any number of countries around the world. The global input to foreign aid amounts to $150B per year.
If we are to see a reduction in this amount at any time in the future, it is going to be achieved by these dependent countries becoming self-sufficient and not simply by providing welfare to the most impoverished ad infinitum. To do that, they need to retain their own cohort of trained individuals who are well compensated and secure and to enable their industries to achieve some global standing.
At odds with our current skilled migration, very often those qualifications are not being recognised sufficiently by employers such that many migrants find they are working in areas that are not commensurate with their skill, engineers driving cabs, doctors waiting on tables.
Recent changes to our university enrolments have seen the great influx of foreign students diminish with corresponding greater pressure being put on these institutions due to the loss of revenue.
Currently, Australia has some 800,000 people seeking employment, many unskilled or as many people again not in full employment. We don’t actually need more people, just to have those people skilled.
Areas such as information technology have up to 200,000 positions that could be taken up as we expand more and more into new online industries.
If we are to bring manufacturing jobs back to Australia and increase our range of Australian made products, we have a need to expand and develop on our local technical and skill capabilities and rely less upon importing those skills from overseas.
Making it easier for Australians to increase their technical skills will undoubtedly take time however it offers a great source of unrealised potential and one we should foster.
