Australias STEM workforce: a survey of employers ... Australias STEM workforce: a survey of...
date post
19-Apr-2020Category
Documents
view
25download
0
Embed Size (px)
Transcript of Australias STEM workforce: a survey of employers ... Australias STEM workforce: a survey of...
Australia’s STEM workforce: a survey of employers Office of the Chief Scientist
23 June 2014
Australia’s STEM workforce: a survey of employers
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation. Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see www.deloitte.com/au/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and its member firms. © 2014 Deloitte Access Economics Pty Ltd
Contents Glossary ..................................................................................................................................... i
Acknowledgements................................................................................................................... 1
Executive summary ................................................................................................................... 2
1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 7
1.1 Objectives of this report .................................................................................................... 7
1.2 STEM in Australia .............................................................................................................. 8
1.3 Research methodology...................................................................................................... 9
2 STEM skills .................................................................................................................... 15
2.1 Labour market skills ........................................................................................................ 15
2.2 Importance of STEM skills in the workplace ..................................................................... 16
2.3 Other skills important for STEM....................................................................................... 20
2.4 Average skill level............................................................................................................ 21
2.5 STEM versus non-STEM ................................................................................................... 23
2.6 Interpersonal skills .......................................................................................................... 26
3 Recruitment experiences .............................................................................................. 28
3.1 Candidate attributes ....................................................................................................... 28
3.2 Recruitment of recently qualified employees .................................................................. 29
3.3 Recruitment of experienced employees .......................................................................... 32
3.4 Recruitment difficulties ................................................................................................... 35
3.5 Issues encountered ......................................................................................................... 37
3.6 Diversity ......................................................................................................................... 41
3.7 Image, career paths and attitude to STEM ....................................................................... 42
4 Future STEM requirements ........................................................................................... 43
4.1 Future workplace requirements ...................................................................................... 43
4.2 Future skills requirements ............................................................................................... 45
4.3 Future recruitment outlook ............................................................................................. 47
5 Industry relationships with post-secondary educational institutions .............................. 49
5.1 Type of relationship ........................................................................................................ 50
5.2 Length of relationship ..................................................................................................... 54
5.3 Satisfaction with relationship .......................................................................................... 55
5.4 Reasons for no relationship ............................................................................................. 56
6 Work placements .......................................................................................................... 59
6.1 Offering of work placements ........................................................................................... 59
6.2 Impact of grants on work placements .............................................................................. 61
7 STEM Postgraduates in the workplace ........................................................................... 63
Australia’s STEM workforce: a survey of employers
Deloitte Access Economics ii
7.1 Hiring of STEM PhD/Doctorate and Research Masters ..................................................... 63
7.2 Roles in the workplace .................................................................................................... 64
7.3 Reasons for not hiring ..................................................................................................... 65
8 STEM education ............................................................................................................ 67
8.1 STEM in school ................................................................................................................ 67
8.2 Post-school STEM education – niche specialisations ........................................................ 68
8.3 Teaching methods ........................................................................................................... 68
9 International comparison .............................................................................................. 70
9.1 Background ..................................................................................................................... 70
9.2 United Kingdom .............................................................................................................. 71
9.3 Switzerland country comparison ..................................................................................... 78
10 Case Study: Regulatory Scientists .................................................................................. 84
10.1 Current workforce........................................................................................................... 84
10.2 Future workforce ............................................................................................................ 87
10.3 Where to from here? ...................................................................................................... 88
References .............................................................................................................................. 91
Appendix A : Consultation list ................................................................................................. 93
Appendix B : Statistical testing ................................................................................................ 95
Appendix C : Terms of reference ............................................................................................. 99
Appendix D : Survey instrument ............................................................................................ 100
Australia’s STEM workforce: a survey of employers
Deloitte Access Economics iii
Charts Chart 1.1 : Responses by industry............................................................................................ 11
Chart 1.2 : Responses by business size and industry ................................................................ 12
Chart 1.3 : Responses by sector ............................................................................................... 13
Chart 1.4 : Employment of STEM qualified staff (%)................................................................. 14
Chart 2.1 : Importance of skills and attributes in the workplace (avg rating) ............................ 17
Chart 2.2 : Skill level in the workplace, STEM employees ......................................................... 21
Chart 2.3 : Skill level in the workplace, non-STEM employees .................................................. 24
Chart 2.4 : Skill level (average rating) STEM and non-STEM ..................................................... 25
Chart 2.5 : Response to statement ‘STEM qualified people do not have good interpersonal skills’, by business size (%) ...................................................................................................... 27
Chart 3.1 : Im