Engineering’s role in Australian society cannot be underestimated. Engineers play a critical role in building national infrastructure required to support our growing population and manage our transition to a clean energy economy. However, Australia’s engineering skills and labour shortage is at its highest level in over a decade.

Australia’s shortage of engineers is only expected to get worse, with an estimated 25,000 engineers due to retire in the next five years. Without urgent action, Australia will not have the engineering workforce required to meet its needs.

So, what are some of the key challenges in attracting people to the industry and how can these be addressed?

What are some of the key challenges?

Some of the key challenges in enhancing the engineering workforce include:

• Attraction and retention: It’s clear more needs to be done to attract and retain engineers. Only 8.5% of university graduates in Australia receive engineering qualifications, a figure that is much lower than that of other comparable countries. It is estimated 3,200 engineers leave the profession for other industries annually.
• Underutilisation of skills: At present, over 20% of Australia’s qualified engineers are not in the workforce. This issue could be addressed by improving engineering recruitment processes to match skilled professionals with suitable roles.
• Industry gender disparity: At present, women make up only 20% of engineering students and 15% of the engineering workforce in Australia. It’s clear this issue needs to be addressed if the industry is going to address its workforce shortage. In addition, the gender pay gap in engineering is 24%, compared to an average of 14% across other industries in Australia.
• Over-reliance on international workforce: At the moment Australia is heavily reliant on migrant engineers. Currently, 62.7% of Australia’s qualified engineer population are born overseas. However, Australia must compete with other countries for skilled migrant engineers. Border closures that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic also highlighted the risks associated with over-relying on International workers.
• Lack of public sector workforce: Since 2006, the percentage of engineers employed in the public sector has dropped from 18% to 13%. This comes despite record infrastructure funding of $248 billion. This has raised concerns that Australia does not have the workforce required to manage it’s infrastructure pipeline.

What are some possible solutions?

There are several ways to encourage more people to pursue careers in engineering. These include:

• Educational awareness: More needs to be done to raise awareness of engineering careers among school students. Initiatives like Engineering is Elementary and Engineers Australia Junior Club should be expanded to engage more students. Social media, which attracts a younger audience should also be used to raise awareness of engineering careers.
• Improving engineering identity: By creating a strong professional identity, the engineering sector can help retain workers. Providing opportunities for professional development and paid internships can help to improve the professional identity of engineers.
• Government intervention: Changes to government policy may assist to increase graduate numbers and increase the use of qualified engineers.
• Improving gender diversity: Policies that encourage gender diversity in the industry should be implemented. Measures to reduce the gender pay gap should also be implemented.
• Better integration: Migrant engineers can experience challenges such as cultural barriers, a lack of social networks and visa restrictions. Improved recruitment practices are needed to support the integration of migrant engineers into the job market.

Engineers play a vital role in society. If you’ve ever considered a career in engineering, now could be the time to make a move, with endless opportunities available.

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Article References

Build Australia (24 July 2024) ‘Australia’s Looming Engineering Skills Crisis’, Build Australia, accessed 2 January 2025.

Engineers Australia (14 March 2024) ‘Harnessing young talent to ease the engineering skills shortage’, Engineers Australia, accessed 2 January 2025.