POLICY & REFORM
campusreview.com.au
Game: set and match
R
Australia’s
so-called
skills gap
is, in fact,
a skills
mismatch,
and fixing
it requires
a revised
curriculum
that links
people to
the right
jobs.
Nicholas Wyman
interviewed by
James Wells
12
hetoric around youth unemployment must
change, an expert has argued.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show
youth unemployment at 12.44 per cent, although
it declined in the most recent quarter. Debate on
the issue has centred on the notion of a skills gap –
education systems failing to cater for industry needs.
Nicholas Wyman, chief executive of consulting group
the Institute for Workplace Skills and Innovation,
has argued this is the wrong way of looking at
the problem.
In Australia, there are about 150,000 vacant job
positions, alongside high numbers of university
graduates without jobs. Therefore, Wyman argues, the
conversation should shift from the skills gap to “people
without jobs and jobs without people”.
Wyman sat down with Campus Review to discuss
how new approaches and policies could benefit
graduates, employers and education institutions alike.
What’s the current conversation around youth
unemployment and why do you believe it needs
changing?
CR: To begin, can you paint us a picture of youth
unemployment in Australia?
NW: Australia is always challenged with youth
Why do you use this phrase instead of ‘skills gap’?
unemployment because it sits at anywhere from
two to three times the national unemployment rate.
The national rate is hovering around 6 per cent, but
the unemployment rate for 15- to 24-year-olds [is
about] 12–13 per cent. In some pockets, such as in
Parramatta in Western Sydney, Blacktown and parts of
Geelong, it’s sitting near 20 per cent.
It’s important that we focus on engaging the next
generation of workers. University is not the only
pathway. Many people bow out of education or bow
out of entry-level jobs and apprenticeships because
they just don’t find the training and the educational
experience engaging.
We need to make sure we’re training people for
the jobs that are available. In Australia, there are
about 800,000 people who are unemployed and
many of those people are university graduates, yet
employers report that there are about 150,000 jobs
remaining vacant.
You have to ask yourself the question, ‘Well,
what’s going on with that?’ Internationally, it’s called
the skills g \