Lessons in Skills Australia’s migration role
15 Feb 10 by John Ross
The development of the occupational hit-list for the skilled migration program reveals as much about Skills Australia as it does about what’s likely to be on the list.
In choosing Skills Australia to develop the new skilled occupation list (SOL) for migration purposes, the federal government has demonstrated three things.
First, skilled immigration is being fully integrated with domestic workforce planning.
Second, the new hit list of occupations for skilled migrants, which is due to be released in April, is likely to contain fewer than 20 occupations.
And third, Skills Australia is pushing ahead with its new workforce development strategy – even though it hasn’t been released yet.
The thrust of the strategy is that central planners should stop trying to second-guess future skill needs in most trades and professions, and instead focus on a handful of high-risk occupations.
In last October’s discussion paper (CR, 12.10.09, Skills Australia outlined four criteria for defining high-risk occupations. They included those “where the skills are specialised and there is a long lead time to develop them”, and “where there is significant disruption if the skills are in short supply”.
“Skills Australia has tested these criteria and identified some 20 broad occupations including engineers, nurses, carpenters and joiners as ‘high-risk’,” the paper said.
“It’s not a question of not planning for the other 80 per cent of occupations. It’s about where planning can be most effective at the national level,” Skills Australia CEO Robin Shreeve said.
Skills Australia says it expects to release the final strategy by early next month, and that consultations have revealed broad support for its approach. But a Skills Australia statement last week indicated it was already applying the strategy – with the SOL to be the first cab off the rank.
“It will focus on specialised occupations that require a long lead time of formal education and training and where the economic impact of not having those skills is significant,” the statement said.
This suggests the SOL will contain only high-risk occupations – around 20 at the most. Probably fewer, as the list won’t include occupations where evidence suggests the needs can be met through domestic education and training.
This would put the new SOL in the same ballpark – in length, at any rate – as the original migrant occupations in demand list (MODL), which was scrapped last week after ballooning to 106 occupations.
“When the MODL was first introduced it was highly targeted – it often only had about eight occupations on it,” said Professor Lesleyanne Hawthorne, associate dean (international) at the University of Melbourne.
Hawthorne said the new list would target “select occupations where there is always strong demand”. She predicted health, engineering, a few IT fields and a couple of trades. Accountants might also get priority treatment, she said, but only those with advanced English language skills.
Last week immigration minister Chris Evans said the list would focus on “high-value professions and trades”. He indicated it was likely to contain nurses, doctors and people with skills needed by the resources sector.
One thing’s certain: the new SOL won’t look anything like the existing one – an exhaustive inventory of more than 400 occupations, almost all of which earn between 40 and 60 of the 120 points needed for independent skilled migration. The now defunct MODL and the more targeted critical skills list – which will be phased out, according to last week’s announcement – are both relatively small subsets of the current SOL.
Meanwhile, the giddy rise of Skills Australia continues unabated.
The body was established less than two years ago and populated with government insiders such as ACTU president Sharan Burrow and Australian Industry Group CEO Heather Ridout, as well as training experts such as Professor Gerald Burke and industry heavyweights such as Philip Bullock. Its original brief was to advise the government about emerging skill needs.
Its ambit was broadened last March to include labour market needs across higher education as well as VET. Last week’s announcement adds a central role in immigration planning.
消息來源:http://www.campusreview.com.au/p ... amp;idArticle=14802 |