Australia’s STEM workforce: a survey of employers Office of the Chief Scientist

23 June 2014

Australia’s STEM workforce: a survey of employers

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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

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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

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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