P U B L I S H E R ’ S D E S K
AUSSIE SHORTAGE IN ENGINEERING
HAS KIWIS RUBBING HANDS
Reports out of Australia are that its engineering
shortage is reaching critical mass and that they
must reverse the current reliance on imported
engineers – and that may open the door for Kiwis
to snatch major contracts from under our cousins'
noses.
"When we're wanting to deliver infrastructure,
deliver innovation in this country, if we don't have
a supply of engineers coming out of our universities,
we're not going to be able to do that,"
national president of Engineers Australia, Trish
White has warned.
Australia has been trying for years to reverse the
decline in students studying science, technology,
engineering and maths (STEM) with little success.
In fact, she says things are so dire that the
country’s infrastructure plans, new space agency
and defence projects are in limbo until the severe
shortage is sorted out. Australia has $200 billion
planned to be spent on its defence and other
projects over the next decade.
Currently, more than half of the engineers working
in Australia are born overseas (57%) and the
workforce comprises only 13% women.
With all that in mind, and if Dunedin-based Farra
Engineering’s chief executive Gareth Evans has
anything to do with it, it is a good example of a
local region to benefit through proactiveness and
spotting an opportunity.
Mr Evans believes that Australian military contracts
could deliver up to 500 jobs to the region and
play an anchor role in initiating a revived wave
of engineering to reinstitute the days of old that
included Fisher and Paykel and Hillside Workshops;
when engineering was at the region’s core.
Mr Evans is playing the protagonist in an effort to
deliver the region a new engineering hub, one with
a foundation of new skills, collaboration and opportunities.
He passed the message during an economic
development committee meeting with the Dunedin
City Council according to the Otago Daily Times.
The money for such innovation would come
from within the Government’s $3 billion regional
development fund.
He said that there were numerous steps that
needed to be taken first – including a feasibility
study – and that Dunedin firms needed to come
together to grab hold of the opportunity.
The OTD reported that Mr Evans believes Australia
was on the path of a ‘nation-building’ exercise
and that their local contractors were required to
do at least half the work, but the lack of capacity
presented chances for the Dunedin region.
A hundred jobs would be delivered to the region by
securing $100 million worth of work in everything
from manufacturing lift and other equipment to
kitchen fit-outs of naval vessels, he said. ''We
would only need a fraction of a percent of the
work to make a material difference to Dunedin,” he
told OTD.
Greg Robertson
Publisher
Dunedin’s Farra Engineering spots a
chance for regional expansion to ignite
engineering days gone by.
www.engineeringnews.co.nz 3
/www.engineeringnews.co.nz