Australia is in the grip of an engineering shortage. Yet a new report by Engineers Australia has found a ready-made workforce of migrants is being overlooked. It suggests unlocking this pool of talent could keep big infrastructure projects on schedule and help lift the economy.
A new report by Engineers Australia suggests Mr Ting’s experience is not uncommon.
It comes at a time when there’s a critical shortage of engineers in Australia, putting billions of dollars of upcoming infrastructure projects on the line as the economy rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Job vacancies in the industry have risen by 97 per cent in a year, with 70,000 jobs available.
But 47 per cent of the migrants looking for work in engineering reported being unemployed.
Half of the migrants working as engineers said they were under-employed.
Skilled engineers are driving taxis and delivering takeaway, says the C-E-O of Engineers Australia Doctor Bronwyn Evans.
It's disappointing. But it's also an opportunity because I think for a lot of employers, they're not aware of this talent pool that is available to them. That's why we think this report is so important to highlight that there is this pool of experienced engineers who are in Australia who are looking for those opportunities to be part of the workforce. Because once you are an engineer you just want to be an engineer. It's such an exciting career to have.
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