Filling the Information gap
A couple of key themes continue to surface in discussions surrounding skilled migrants. Often migrants feel they have been mislead when it comes to employment opportunities before they arrive, many in the IT industry complain they are unable to adequately measure overseas experience or qualifications and finally employers are often unsure how to tap into the skilled migrant base.
Since July 1999 all migrants coming into Australia with IT skills have had their abilities and experience assessed by the Australian Computer Society, in order to establish some kind of yardstick for Australian employers. While those that are applicable are able to apply for associate membership with the ACS, there is no specific orientation targeted at IT-skilled migrants.
The lack of information available to skilled migrants applying for visa to come to Australia is recognised as a problem by many in the industry.
According to John Hughes, professor of computing at UTS numerous skilled migrants arrive in Australia only to discover that their skills base not in fact in demand.
-When I get to meet some of those people and get to hear some of those stories, I must admit I feel quite guilty as an Australia when people have been lead to believe that opportunities exist here when they don't exist," Hughes says. -Some of these people become real heroes due to their perseverance."
Hughes concedes that it is difficult to set criteria for a skills in demand in an industry which is constantly changing. However, he believes Australia could do more to inform potential migrants about the structure of the industry, focussing on the long, rather than short, term.
He also says that more needs to be done to educate IT recruiters of the value of broad experience.
-For years we have tried to point out to people that experience in IT enables people to learn quickly. Someone who has an extensive knowledge of one language is naturally predisposed to learning another fairly quickly," Hughes says. -You need to recognise more than just skills, you also need to recognise people's ability to learn new skills."
Many migrants say they would be happy with access to information about the industry before they arrive.
-When you apply for a visa to immigrate you get nothing," says Sophia Javed. -There is no information available through the embassy, so we have to find it all out ourselves when we get off the plane."
Kimberly O'Sullivan believes the up and coming "Information Technology Skills Showcase" could go a long way to bridging some of these gaps.
-Basically as long as their skills aren't being recognised we are all losing out," O'Sullivan said. -We're looking at getting employers groups, recruitment groups, industry associations and skilled migrants together so they begin to realise how much they can help each other."
Nothing has changed in the last 14 years.
When i came here in '88 it took me more than a year to get a job, although i had 15 years experience in a wide area of IT. But once i had that first job, all problems were over.
Also, if there is such a large number of IT jobs available (as Bruce Lin said: "we really need to be getting a lot more people in Australia into IT careers.”) then why do nearly all ads for IT personel require a minimum of 1 year of experience? How about some companies take on people with shorter experience and train them?