The hardest part of starting up is starting out.
THE automotive industry is facing the most serious skills shortage in its history, ravaged by diminished apprentice intake, COVID and business contraction.
In its manifesto that highlighted the needs of industry from a new federal government, the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce (VACC) said there was a skilled labour deficit of 31,143 positions across the industry that is forecast to rise to 38,700 positions during 2022/23.
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These students say they are “in limbo” as Australia’s Department of Home Affairs, which oversees immigration, refuses to provide a clear timeline of when students can expect to hear the outcome of their applications.
Alokita, an Indian student, received an offer to study aerospace engineering at UNSW Canberra in September 2020 and was due to begin her PhD in February 2021. Her visa has been “under assessment” since she submitted the application at the beginning of October 2020 and she says when she asks for updates from the DHA, she only ever receives “generic” responses.
Alokita says the university has been “very supportive” and has already let her defer her place five times due to the delay, but it will not allow any further deferments – if her visa is not accepted by June, she will lose her scholarship and PhD place.
“Every day I wake up in a hope to get a conclusion, a direction, and a fixed course of action but every day I am faced with the same uncertainties,” Alokita said, adding that the last two years have been “filled with insane amounts of stress”.
UNSW Canberra did not respond to requests for comment.
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The health and welfare workforces deliver various services through Australia’s private and public organisations. However, there is an imbalance in the system as the extent of services delivered is way lesser than what is actually needed, primarily due to workforce crisis.
The accurate picture of the healthcare workforce crisis in Australia was revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the period, the biggest challenge was not the supply of medicine or equipment but the availability of a skilled workforce.
However, the bitter truth is that the workforce crisis has not been caused by the pandemic; it has merely been exposed and worsened by COVID-19 onslaught.
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There is a narrative that has been around for a while tagging technical/vocational education as a last resort after one fails to advance in formal education. The other was that it’s the cheaper option if one failed to raise the tuition for instance to finish high school or to join university or if one had dropped out of school. This type of education has often been categorised as an option for intellectually inferior students and associated with “unpopular” blue-collar employment. The perception has been deeply ingrained in people that parents regarded their children as failures and in disappointment ‘dumped’ them into the technical/vocational schools.
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International students continue to shun Australia
Late last year, the Morrison Government announced reforms to visa arrangements to ensure a “rapid return of international students”.
The reforms included:
According to the latest arrivals data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), released yesterday, student arrivals have failed to rebound, with only 28,290 arriving in the three months to March 2022.
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed that from July 31st all visitors will be able to enter the country, and that international students will be able to apply for visas.
She said the reopening was part of a package of measures to support economic recovery and to fill labour shortages in the country.
Working holiday visas have been open since March and the country opened to fully vaccinated visitors from visa waiver countries at the beginning of this month. A special cohort of 5,000 international students who will be able to enter earlier than full reopening is underway. As recently reported, Education New Zealand advised agencies that some places in the cohort are still available for English language and private tertiary education.
The latest announcement from the Prime Minister means that the international education sector will be fully reopen from July 31st.
Commenting on the recommencement of student visa processing, Grant McPherson, Chief Executive of Education New Zealand , said in a statement that it was a “welcome step forward and sends a strong signal that New Zealand is fully reopening to the world”.
“This announcement brings much-needed certainty for our existing and prospective international students after an anxious and stressful two years stranded outside the country because of border restrictions,” said Universities New Zealand – Te Pōkai Tara Chief Executive Chris Whelan.
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“Where London leads; I have no doubt the rest of the country will follow,” was the message from Chris Skidmore, former minister of state for universities, speaking to representatives from 25 of London’s higher education institutions at a roundtable event in Westminster this week.
The event, organised by London Higher and Oxford International Education Group, included insight from IDP Connect and Nous Group and signalled the start of a renewed effort from stakeholders in the English capital to re-establish “brand London” in the face of strong global competition from the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Skidmore, speaking via video link from Brussels as part of a UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly, warned against the UK standing still in setting new international recruitment targets.
“Last year, the Department published an update to the international education strategy, reaffirming a commitment to reaching the milestones mentioned; yet it lacked any new ambitions or policy innovations,” he said.
The UK national target of 600,000 international students attending British universities (and generating an annual education export market of £35 billion) was reached 10 years ahead of schedule, due, in part, to the reinstated policy lever of a post-study work visa in 2021, but also due to border closures and travel disruption for competitor destinations during the pandemic.
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