A sizeable 22% believe it is also the quickest way to address the gap.
The data comes from a recent survey of independent panel comprising 1012 Australians commissioned by immigration assistance and advice platform ‘Immigration to Australia’.
The research aimed at finding out what Australians thought was the most effective way to address the current skills shortage in the country.
The survey assumes importance given that Australian Bureau of Statistics reported a higher number of job vacancies this year and a persistent gap between the average number of qualified and suitable applicants.
Job vacancies were 89.3% higher in May 2023 than in February 2020, pointing directly at a persistent labour shortage across many industries.
The Australian government has responded by putting in place the delivery of 180,000 fee-free TAFE and vocational education courses running throughout the country this year.
Respondents of the survey were given a choice of 14 solutions and asked to select the options they believed would be the most effective in resolving the crisis.
While 50% respondents thought that government incentives, such as tax breaks for companies that hire and train apprentices and interns, 46% thought that partnerships between industries and educational institutions would be most effective in filling in this skills gap.
When it came to the quickest way to solve the crisis, 22% participants tilted towards cheaper/free TAFE or university courses, followed closely at 12% who voted in favour of accepting a higher number of skilled migrants.
The survey indicated that a mere 7% were in favour of companies outsourcing work to offshore teams, thus demonstrating a strong desire for jobs to remain onshore in Australia.
Only 10% participants felt an increase in AI and technology to replace human resources would be helpful in removing the skills shortage.
This points at the fact that Australians are not keen to rely on automation and digitalisation as a solution to the problem.
Interestingly, the survey found that respondents do not believe Australia’s current working age is to blame for the skills shortage. Only 10% felt younger teenagers should be allowed to work and 13% were in favour of the other spectrum of further pushing the retirement age in the country.
The survey found that 30 per cent of respondents thought expanding visa programs and opportunities could help Australia solve the skills shortage in the long term.
The 2022-23 budget addressed critical skill shortages across Australia by increasing the cap on the number of places available to Working Holiday Makers, providing an additional 16,500 places to Afghan nationals under the Humanitarian program over a four-year period, increasing the Migration Program Skill Stream by more than 30,000 places and moving to a demand-driven model for partner visa processing to provide greater flexibility in meeting the demand for partner visas.
State-wide breakup
*52% people of NSW and 56% of Victorians voted for cheaper or free University or TAFE courses to address the impending skills shortage across sectors.
*55% of Queenslanders, 62% West Australians and 63% South Australians are most in favour of increasing government incentives for companies to hire and train apprentices and interns.
(Source: Immigration to Australia survey)
