Sadly, I don’t think so (but we’ll get to that).
This week is a good week, bringing the much welcomed first day of Spring and the wonderful change in season. Whilst I’m sure it will still be cold in Canberra there will be some heat with Labor’s Jobs and Skills Summit. The two-day event starts on Thursday and brings together representatives from unions and business, civil society and state and local government to discuss topics of industrial relations reform, skills and training reform, and migration.
In the lead up to this week’s Job and Skills Summit, a number of Economists were questioned in particular around the omnipresent problem of the skills shortage. Can it be fixed?
If so, is it more effectively corrected by education or immigration? To revert to my opening question and response, even if the topic to assist the skills shortage progresses from fine words to concrete ideas, it will be a long-term proposition and unfortunately won’t solve the problem of 2022.
So education or immigration? Investing in Australians’ education is far more important than immigration in resolving the nation’s skills shortages, according to the leading economists. The selected Australian economists polled by the Economic Society of Australia are recognised by their peers as leaders in their fields, including economic modelling, labour markets and public policy. When asked to select from a list of topics which offered the most promise of delivering better outcomes, two-thirds picked “education and skills”. Only one-third picked “migration policy”.
The biggest concerns among those who picked “education and skills” relate to school and vocational education. Australian National University’s Bruce Chapman, who designed the country’s higher education loans scheme (HECS) in the late 80s, described funding for vocational education as a “mess”.
“There are upfront fees alongside no-charge regimes, both of which are poor and inequitable,” Chapman said. “A small number of courses offer income-contingent loans along the lines of the university scheme, but most do not.” Universities have income-contingent loans that don’t require payments until the recipient’s income climbs above $48,361. If applied to all vocational education courses (including TAFE courses), it would allow reasonable charges and protect students from hardships and default. “Governments should have been aware of this for the 34 years that HECS has existed, but have shown no leadership in the area,” Chapman said.
High school outcomes remain poor
Unfortunately, also it appears all levels of Australian education – from primary school, up to vocational education and universities – are failing to equip Australians with the skills required for the jobs of both today and the future. There are inequities in how education funding is distributed. Among the many causes of that failure were inequities in how education funding is distributed, which have led to sustained gaps between Australia’s high and low socio-economic students’ results.
Industry experts have suggested levelling the playing field between private and public schools by ditching subsidies to private schools, banning mobile phones in schools, and allowing children with low grades to repeat years instead of setting standards so low they were generally promoted. More than half of those surveyed wanted measures to promote productivity.
Full working rights for refugees?
Of those who nominated “migration policy” as a priority, two warned against using more migration to fix skills shortages. Economist Sue Richardson said she knew of no evidence that migration increased either productivity or the living standards of pre-existing Australians. “It does increase aggregate gross domestic product,” she said. “But that is just because the population is bigger”. It enabled Australia to avoid a close examination of why it did not generate the skills it needed itself.
Some University lecturers have pointed to the absurdity of not giving refugees and those awaiting determination an unfettered right to work, suggesting it could be an “easy early win”. “We already have in this country a ready and willing supply of labour,” Lecturer Amanda Nowak said. “We should get rid of the paranoia and ideology inherent in the current administration of the policy and welcome our resident refugees into full participation and education rights.”
What do you think would work best to fix the skills shortage?
Many economists also nominated workforce participation, care jobs and equal pay for women as key priorities for the summit. Much will be discussed I’m sure and it will be an interesting two days in our nation’s capital. Let’s hope many leave with a spring in their step with decisions that will blossom into action to make Australia’s future a little brighter.
