Wind back several years and forecasters were warning of a looming shortage of skills as governments across the nation invested in a massive range of road and rail projects.

Fast forward to today and the situation has become further complicated. Border closures have cut off the supply of skilled migrants. Even when borders reopen, massive stimulus/infrastructure investment elsewhere means that Australia will have fierce competition for talent.

Already, skilled people are becoming harder to find.

Over the five years to July 2021, job vacancies for civil engineers climbed from 1,766 to 2,235 – close to the highest level on record since the mining boom. Over that same time, vacancies for electrical engineers and industrial/mechanical/production engineers have more than doubled from 185 and 419 to 394 and 839 respectively.

On the trades side, vacancies for electricians are at their highest level on record.

Primarily, this is being driven by a ramp up in work. In the June quarter, the dollar value of work done on roads ($5.690 billion) and bridges ($342.1 million) came in at the second highest level on record, according to initial ABS estimates. In rail, activity reached a record $2.934 billion during the quarter.

Courtesy of this, demand for workers is red hot. Over the past five years, the number of people employed in heavy and civil engineering construction increased from 76,800 in May 2016 to 133,800 in May 2021 (ABS data).

Going forward, the situation is expected to worsen. In its most recent outlook, BIS Oxford Economics says it expects the dollar value of work done on roads, rail, bridges and harbours to rise from already elevated levels of $32.0 billion in 2020/21 to almost $50 billion in 2022/23.

All this is being driven by a huge range of projects such as Inland Rail, Sydney Metro, Western Harbour Tunnel (NSW), Melbourne Metro, West Gate Tunnel (Melbourne), Melbourne Airport Link, Cross River Rail, and WA Metronet.

All this is before work on other projects such as Olympic games infrastructure in Queensland or Victoria’s Suburban Rail Loop kicks in.

With this in mind, Engineers Australia recently hosted an online thought leader series session to talk about solutions. The session was chaired by Professor Stephen Kajewski, Deputy Dean (Acting, Facility of Engineering and Queensland University of Technology. Panellists included Marion Terrill, Transport and Cities Program Director at Grattan Institute; Andrew Chapman, CEO of the Queensland Major Contractors Association (QMCA); Dennis Walsh, Chief Engineer at the Department of Transport and Main Roads (Queensland); and Genevieve De Michele; director of infrastructure project advisory firm Gluco Consultants.

Not surprisingly, Terrill and Chapman say challenges are being driven by the volume of work.

Speaking particularly of Queensland, Chapman says a report published annually by QMCA forecasts that the value of major projects which are in procurement or delivery throughout the state is expected to rise from $7-8 billion this year to around $16 billion by 2022/23. That will see the number of workers required on these projects increase from around 15,000 now to around 30,000 throughout 2022/23 and 2023/24. All this is before work on Olympic related facilities gets into full swing from around 2023/24 onward.

Such situations, he said, are being mirrored in other states.

All this is happening as border closures have disrupted the supply of new workers. Each year, Chapman says Australia has around 10,000 engineering graduates whilst another 16,000 overseas engineers migrate to work in Australia. Until borders fully reopen, this stream of overseas workers will be disrupted.

Moreover, all this will be further exacerbated as the infrastructure sector competes for engineering talent with sectors such as defence and manufacturing.

The problem is further complicated, Terrill notes, due to the size and complexity of projects being undertaken. Ten years ago, Australia did not have any transport-related construction projects worth $5 billion or more in the pipeline. Now, there are nine, and such projects account for two-thirds of the value of the project pipeline. Over the past five years, the average value of a road and rail project being built has more than doubled from $430 million to $1.1 billion.

All this means that projects have become more complicated and require more specialised skills, Terrill says.

According to Walsh, the full impact of all this is yet to be seen. Despite COVID, he says Transport and Main Roads has thus far managed to deliver above expectations on a record program of delivery which is being undertaken through the state’s Qtrip program over the past three years.

Nevertheless, shortages are starting to bite. At TMR, Walsh says the agency is seeing a reduced flow of workers into specialised areas such as structural engineering. Across the rail sector, Michele says existing project teams are being spread more thinly within consultancies across multiple major projects. She adds that a pull-back in undergraduate training/experience programs during COVID has driven a shortage of engineering graduates with one to five years’ experience. Chapman says all of QMCA’s members are finding project managers and senior project engineers with five to fifteen years’ experiences difficult to find.

“If you think there are skills shortages – you are right,” Terrill says.

“It is a sellers’ market.

“If you are a skilled engineer looking for great work opportunities, this is a great time for you. It’s not so great if you are trying to hire one.”

To address these problems, panellists say action is needed in several areas.

1. Work smarter, not harder

First, Chapman says Australia’s infrastructure sector increase productivity and deliver more output for each worker.

Ways this could be achieved include:

• Streamlining project development processes to reduce duplication. Requirements for three different business cases on some projects, for instance, should be questioned.
• Adopting common approaches toward workplace breakdown structures to minimise the duplication between engineering and construction.
• Integrating the above with BIM and digital engineering tools.
• Using different materials and technology to reduce labour requirements.
• Reducing onsite labour requirements through modularisation.
• Enabling more engineers to focus on project delivery by deploying technologies such as AI and machine learning in cost estimation and project development.
• Over the longer-term pursuing automation on construction sites – especially greenfield sites on which constraints in terms of space are less restrictive. This has the added benefit of improving safety by reducing the interaction between people and machines.

2. Greater effort in education and training.

Next, De-Michele talks the need for greater industry effort at an education level.

Whilst this includes universities, it needs to start engaging earlier by encouraging high-school students into engineering related fields. Here, it is important not only to reach students but also parents and guardians who influence early career decisions.

On universities, De-Michele says industry must support and engage with these and advise academics about what should be taught during coursework.

Universities, meanwhile, should facilitate this by allowing industry to come on to campus as well as though going out to industry and seeking feedback.

According to De-Michele, an example of both of these things happening can be seen through Queensland University of Technology (QUT), which has a range of advisory bodies in which industry representatives provide advice to academics about what they would like to see in coursework.

In addition, industry should engage students early through undergraduate employment and training. This, De-Michele says, enables students to learn on the job and creates a sense of engagement and cultural alignment with the industry.

She says waiting until students graduate in order to employ them is too late.

3. Increase graduate intake and apprenticeships.

One area in which action is happening involves an increase in graduate intake and apprenticeships.

At TMR, Walsh says the organisation had a record graduate intake last year and will do likewise this year.

Whilst he acknowledges that public sector agencies often serve as a training ground before young professionals subsequently go out to industry, Walsh does not view this as a loss as it adds to overall industry capability and enhances the capability of the agency’s delivery partners.

Chapman, meanwhile, says contractors are taking on more apprentices and working with training colleges to upskill those people.

4. Upskilling existing workers.

As well as graduate training, Chapman says more needs to be done to upskill the existing workforce

An example is a program which QMCA sponsors known as Constructionarium, which sees younger workers submit tenders for major structures and then subsequently construct and build them. Though this program, young workers gain exposure to all aspects of the project lifecycle.

Chapman says more projects like this are needed to help tradespeople and engineers to advance into roles such as supervising project engineers and project managers.

5. Attract workers from other sectors

Another area of opportunity to which Chapman points involves attracting and upskilling workers from other sectors – blue collar sectors in particular.

Once work associated with the Commonwealth HomeBuilder program eases off, he says there may be opportunities to attract and upskill workers from the home building sector to work on infrastructure.

6. Smooth Out Project Pipelines

An important point on which commentators generally agree is the need to smooth out the project pipeline and avoid a boom bust cycle which sees skilled workers leave the industry during quieter times and therefore be unavailable when demand picks up.

On this score, Chapman says industry must work with governments and advocate for a program of works which is feasible and sustainable over the long term.

7. Restart and Improve Skilled Migration

Whilst education and skills development may help to address shortages over the longer term, a common point about which many agree is the need for skilled migration to restart as soon as borders are able to reopen.

In addition, Terrill says it is important to think about how Australia’s migration program could be improved.

In particular, she says skilled migration lists don’t always work as well as they should. Whilst many employers are able to articulate the skills they they want, Terryl says the list tend to be anecdotal and not well supported by data. In addition, some of the needs which are articulated can be transient or could potentially be addressed by other means such as recruiting workers from related fields, smarter use of technology or better project pipeline management.

On this score, Terrill’s colleagues at Grattan are looking at how the system might be improved. One option is replacing the current list with more of a wage-based approach for bringing in skilled migrants.

8. Improve industry culture and attract/retain more workers (esp. women)

One area which De-Michele says must be addressed is the need to improve industry culture and to retain more workers – especially women.

In particular, there is a concern that people are leaving contractor roles for consultancies and public sector roles in search of greater flexibility and more reasonable hours.

Citing a recent survey from the Australian Institute of Project Management, De-Michele says as many as a quarter of all young construction professionals do not see themselves as remaining in the sector over the next five years. Reasons cited include stress, work-life balance and industry culture.

Citing her own case, De Michele says such factors contributed toward her own decision to switch from construction to working on client-side on construction jobs. When both she and her partner worked in construction, De Michele their work-life balance was out of balance and she was regularly left to go home to household chores such as cooking notwithstanding having already completed a full day of work.

She says the issue must be addressed head on. This includes by looking at what has changed over recent decades and what is driving decisions of young professionals It also means the industry looking to support its workers to enable them to have fulfilling lives outside of work.

Chapman agrees, and says the industry needs to do better.

Relating his own experience, Chapman says prevailing attitudes early in his career were that those who were not working for at least 50 hours per week were not pulling their weight.

Hopefully, he says those will fall by the wayside. Using technology to improve efficiency could help, he says.

Moreover, he says the industry needs to create a better environment for people who wish to remain within the sector and create pathways for people to cater for different phases of their personal and professional lives.

This may not always be on site but could be in engineering or interface roles, he said.

A Great Story to Tell

Despite the challenges, Walsh says the industry has a good story to tell prospective graduates.

“There are plenty of challenges ahead but also opportunity,” Walsh said.

“It is a sector that does great things for the community and there is plenty of opportunity.”