"The interesting question is why the immigration department invites the ITCRA view on these issues without seeking counterbalancing views. ITCRA is just a pack of sales people."
-- Ian, Canberra
Teubler was responding to ITCRA's claims that the government needs to increase the number of temporary working visas to address the "skills shortage" in the ICT industry. But no such shortage exists, he says in a column exclusive to ZDNet Australia.
"Based on my experience, it's getting more and more difficult for locals to compete against foreign professionals because the barriers, within Australia, keep getting higher and higher," he said.
"It's very clear that Australian ICT workers will continue to be disappointed and if we don't care for ourselves, who will," he asked.
At a recent meeting with business leaders and Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone on the 2005-2006 Migration Program, representatives from ITCRA included two contractor management companies, which have a vested interest in a higher volume of skilled migrant visas.
"These companies [obviously] stand to benefit from any increase in foreign workers," he said.
First of all there seems to be a confusion between lack of jobs and skills to perform that jobs. Just because we can have hundreds of builders doesnt mean all of them are capable of building multi storey buildings.
This is the situation in the IT industry. Local developers many not have the necessary skills to compete with the experienced overseas expats. Does this mean that projects have to be stalled while the employer "trains up" locals ? Definately not! Every industry has worked in a similar fashion.
Now does this also mean when there is a job which pays well and the contenders are a experienced expat and a non experienced local, the job should go to a local - even though the local may be
a) a fresh graduate,
b) non industry person,
c) has not been working in the industry for extended periods of time ?
If you are an employer, who wants to spend X amount of dollars in a project, which would you choose ?
The prime issue here is skills, not manpower. Australia has more than enough manpower in the IT industry. Australia however does not have enough skilled professionals in the IT industry.
Why ?
- a lot of existing skilled professionals move overseas to work.
- Australian market is typically 12-24 months behind Asia in technology uptake, so by the time professionals catch up here, the Asians have had a 24 months lead. Same with Europe and America.
- lack of government support to induce Australia as a technology hub whereas countries like Ireland, Germany, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan etc continue to innovate.
I could go on and on here. The strange thing is, my Australian colleagues in the industry dont seem to complain. They welcome the opportunity to be seen competing with overseas professionals. The only ones who are complaining is those people who never kept their skills up to date.
So if I were to hire an IT worker, it would be the MOST suitable worker for my project, be it local or expat.
So remember, its not a worker shortage, its a SKILL shortage.