by Chris Becker
It’s a sad situation when there is little to no job prospects if you are a science or other STEM graduate in Australia.
The Grattan Institute has just released a study implying that Australia has “too many” science graduates:
In 2015 only half of bachelor degree science graduates seeking full-time work had found it four months after completing their degrees, 17% below the average for all graduates.
“Although many recent science graduates struggle in the labour market, things improve over time,” it said.
“For 2011 bachelor degree science graduates, their full-time employment rate four months later was 65%, but three years later, in 2014, 82% of those who were looking for full-time work had found it.
“While this is a considerable increase, it is below the 89% rate for all graduates.”
So much for the so-called “Knowledge Nation” and the “Innovation Economy”. Yet, students continue to pile into science-related courses despite poor job prospects:
The Grattan Institute’s higher education program director, Andrew Norton, said despite poor employment outcomes, demand for science courses continued to grow.
“Prospective students thinking about studying science need to know that a bachelor science degree is high risk for finding a job,” he said. “Often students need to do another degree to improve their employment prospects.”
Indeed. In fact my advice to anyone wanting to study at the forefront of technology and science, including applied engineering skills outside of mining, is to go overseas. There are few prospects for you in Australia, which places jobs in the FIRE and people-servicing economy above genuine innovation.
The report goes on to say that even IT is struggling as one third of graduates are unable to get full time work, due to competition, mainly from cheaper overseas labour.
The upside is that it appears the university system can respond to skill shortages well enough, with just six skill areas reporting shortages last year compared to 40 in 2008. But this should hardly be surprising given the chronically soft labour market and the huge increase in university graduates over recent years.
Australia cannot be left behind as a nation of hipster barbers and baristas and primary producers of things the world is rapidly not wanting.
However, it is not from the education market where we should seek leadership, but rather from both sides of politics. Our politicians need to properly fund and plan for a revolutionary focus on the multipliers of science and technology if it wants our children to even maintain the current standard of living, let alone increase it.