Skill shortages are biting. At a time when the unemployment rate is at its lowest level since August 2008 and recruitment levels are at record highs, many employers are reporting difficulty filling job vacancies. A good proportion of businesses that we speak to can’t find skilled people to undertake essential work.
The National Skills Commission (NSC) reports that there has been a marked increase in Australian labour market activity since the start of 2022, with job vacancies growing significantly beyond their pre-COVID-19 levels in Australia. This situation is also evident in New Zealand, the UK and the USA, which are all experiencing increased labour market tightness.
In Australia, the NSC’s most recent Skills Priority List found that 42% of Technician and Trade Occupations are currently in shortage. The most critical shortages were found to be ICT project managers, ICT security specialists, software engineers and enrolled nurses.
Businesses with vacancies in the IT space are increasingly having to turn to non-traditional, ‘left-field’ solutions to attract talent. One the South Australian Business Chamber member, Performance Education, is providing businesses with such a solution: short-term access to young, enthusiastic IT graduates who are looking for work, at no cost to the host organisation.
Performance Education is a Registered Training Organisation that offers international students who have graduated from local universities a 44-week ‘Professional Year’ or PY course. The PY course essentially teaches the student how to integrate into a professional business environment in Australia. Now owned by OES (which originated from partnership between SEEK and Swinburne University of Technology), Performance Education is Australia’s largest PY provider and has educated over 30,000 graduates to date.
As part of that course, students are required to undertake on-site work experience with a host organisation for a period of at least 36 days (a minimum of 3‑days-a-week, for 12 weeks) and fulfil the daily requirements of their chosen discipline in that organisation.
Graduate students are available with a host of different skillsets, including IT business analysts, data analysts, network administrators, testers, website developers and IT support desk specialists.
I recently spoke to Stuart Greig, the local Corporate Partnerships Executive for Performance Education in Adelaide.
‘We’re always on the look out for organisations that are keen to host a student — first and foremost, the organisation needs to provide a set of relevant and meaningful tasks that are appropriate for the student’s skills and experience’.
Stuart explained that all placements need to provide benefits to both the organisation and the student.
‘In addition to using their technical skills, we also want the student to get exposure to more general organisational settings so that they can learn the ‘soft skills’ of working in an Australian workplace — the host organisation needs to provide the student with access to organisational meetings and activities and generally integrate the student into their day-to-day activities’.
‘It’s also important for the organisation to nominate an appropriate mentor with relevant experience and qualifications to support the student during their work experience. The student will also need an appropriate workspace and computer — but we cover the cost of insurance during the term of the placement’.
Performance Education have a series of PY courses running at any one time, which means that there are always cohorts of students that are ready for placement into organisations. The upcoming dates for the placement of students are: 12 September 2022, 10 October 2022, 7 November 2022 and 5 December 2022.
‘We only have IT graduates at this stage, but in the latter part of the year, we envisage having other disciplines available, too, including Marketing, Engineering and HR’, Stuart explained.
At a time when skills shortages are impacting most businesses, hosting a skilled IT graduate from Performance Education may be a good option for progressing an IT project, building a website or covering a help desk vacancy.
For further information about hosting a graduate student, please contact Stuart Greig via email at stuart.greig@performance.edu.au or visit the Performance Education website at https://www.performance.edu.au/
