Gender gap ‘critical’ to solve Australia’s skills crisis

A new plan has been hatched to try and drag Australia out of the grips of its worst ever skills shortage crisis.

Warnings come as the construction industry struggles to fillt housands of job vacancies. Picture: Sarah Matray/NCA NewsWire

Fixing massive gender gaps in workplaces will be essential to curb spiralling worker shortages threatening Australia’s economy, according to the boss of the nation’s top skills agency.

Jobs and Skills head Professor Peter Dawkins laid out an “ambitious agenda” to tackle Australia’s worsening skills crisis in a major speech on Wednesday.

He warned the country had not seen a drop in numbers of skilled workers since the aftermath of the Second World War.

“Looking forward over the next three decades the transition to net zero emissions will present further skills challenges, including for occupations already in significant shortage, such as electricians,” Professor Dawkins told the National Press Club.

“The demand for services across health, care and support, will continue to rise strongly.”

Employers could attract more workers from other jobs by increasing wages: JSA head Peter Dawkins has said. Picture: Supplied.

About 332 occupations nationwide are facing worker shortages as of 2023, up from 31 per cent in 2022 and 19 per cent in 2021.

Despite key industries like manufacturing, construction, and mining being some of the nation’s biggest employers, women only make up roughly 3 per cent of the overall trade workforce.

This will be a major issue to solve given recent modelling suggesting Australia will need about 32,000 more electricians by as soon as 2030.

Improving gender imbalances in other areas with severe worker shortages, including in nursing and aged care, will also be “critical” to secure the economy and wellbeing of the future population, Professor Dawkins said.

“Major attention will need to be given to the student pipeline, especially in apprenticeships; doubling down on efforts to get women into trades and supporting more First Nations people into education and training,” he added.

“Australians will need to acquire and continually develop the necessary skills, which will increasingly be high-level skills if we are to achieve the economic and social aspirations of a prosperous and equitable nation.”