Do we still need to import engineers? What are your thoughts?

Author Stephen Noble

A couple of weeks ago, the Association of Professional Engineers Australia (APEA) called on Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton to remove engineers from the Skilled Occupations List. They argue that the Government continues to allow companies to source engineers from overseas when thousands of Australian-based engineers struggle to find work – the government first needs to address underemployment of Australian graduates and overseas born engineers.

I run a long-established recruitment company specialising in the recruitment of engineers. There are areas where there are very severe shortages of engineers but often these shortages are only there because of the extremely narrow parameters which companies are willing to accept in the candidates they will consider.

I would largely support the stance taken by APEA. For many years now, graduates have had a really tough market in which to find their first engineering job. And too frequently we see resumes of overseas educated and trained engineers who have been in Australia for years and can’t get that first break. What happens when the large car companies stop manufacturing here soon – will employers have open minds to retraining and utilising some of the great experience they have? I do think that too often the employers of engineers (our clients) just want candidates with exactly the same skill set or experience as they require in their company. There doesn’t appear to be a huge level of interest or commitment to employing base skills, and then training the very specific stuff. I suspect that a large part of the answer is because there’s been a continual focus on reducing corporate costs since the GFC, and anyone coming into an organisation needs to be instantly productive. If the Australian government removes engineers from the Skilled Occupations List, should they concurrently introduce a 6 month training subsidy for the employer?

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