Confronting the shortage of skilled and professional workers : A large scale industry-school partnership initiative

In most of the advanced economies, students are losing interest in careers especially in engineering and related industries. Hence, western economies are confronting a critical skilled labour shortage in areas of technology, science and engineering. The aim of this paper is to document how the organisational and institutional elements of one industry-school partnerships initiative – The Gateway Schools Program - contribute to productive knowledge sharing and networking. In particular this paper focuses on an initiative of an Australian State government in response to a perceived crisis around the skills shortage in an economy transitioning from a localised to a global knowledge production economy. The Gateway Schools initiative signals the first sustained attempt in Australia to incorporate schools into production networks through strategic partnerships linking them to partner organisations at the industry level. We provide case examples of how four schools operationalise the partnerships with the mining and energy industries and how these partnerships as knowledge assets impact the delivery of curriculum and capacity building among teachers. A program theory approach to analysis, informed by theoretical perspectives of Bailey (1994), Bagnall (2007) and Walsh (2004) was adopted. Each of these theorists provides a related but different perspective on the establishment, purpose, and effectiveness respectively of partnerships. Our ultimate goal is to define those characteristics of successful partnerships that do contribute to enhanced interest and engagement by students in those careers that are currently experiencing critical shortages.

Labour attraction and retention in rural and remote Queensland communities

Attracting and retaining a skilled labour force is a critical yet complex issue for rural and remote communities. This article reports the findings of a study investigating the current approaches to attraction and retention in two separate Australian regions. Building on previously developed models, this research analyses the roles employers and wider communities are playing, or potentially could play, in addressing issues that influence labour shortages. The findings of this research highlight the complexities of labour attraction and retention and emphasise the need for communities and businesses to work together to overcome labour shortages in rural and remote locations.

Labour, industries and the politics of immigration

Cette thèse par articles examine les causes et conséquences économiques des politiques d'immigration du point de vue des pays receveurs. Je soutiens que les politiques d'immigration affectent la composition industrielle, et que l'immigration non-qualifiée a ralenti le développement des secteurs haute-technologie dans les pays de l'OCDE au cours des dernières décennies. Néanmoins, les gouvernements élus ont des incitatifs à accroître les niveaux d'immigration et à admettre des immigrants non-qualifiés, afin de conserver l'appui du secteur privé, et de façon à éviter les réactions négatives qui résulteraient de l'affaiblissement des industries traditionnelles. Le premier article s'appuie sur un modèle de progrès technologique endogène et soutient que les activités de recherche des entreprises croissent avec l'offre relative en travail qualifié, et se contractent avec l'offre relative en travail non-qualifié. À l'aide de données panel sur les pays de l'OCDE entre 1971 et 2003, j'estime l'élasticité des dépenses en R&D par rapport à l'offre relative de facteurs au moyen d'un modèle OLS dynamique (DOLS). Les résultats sont conséquents avec les propositions théoriques, et je démontre que l'immigration non-qualifiée a ralenti l'intensité des investissements privés en R&D. Le deuxième article examine la réponse des gouvernements fédéraux canadiens au lobbying des entreprises sur l'enjeu de l'immigration, à l'aide de données trimestrielles entre 1996 et 2011. J'argue que les gouvernements ont des incitatifs électoraux à accroître les niveaux d'immigration malgré les préférences restrictives du public sur cet enjeu, afin de s'assurer de l'appui des groupes d'intérêt corporatifs. Je teste cet argument à l'aide d'un modèle vectoriel autorégressif. Un résultat clé est la réponse positive des influx de travailleurs temporaires à l'intensité du lobbying des entreprises. Le troisième article soutient que les gouvernements ont des incitatifs à gérer la sélection des immigrants de façon à préserver la composition industrielle régionale. Je teste cet argument avec des données panel sur les provinces canadiennes entre 2001 et 2010, et un devis de recherche basé sur l'approche des doubles moindres carrés (two-stage least squares). Les résultats tendent à appuyer l'argument principal : les provinces dont l'économie repose davantage sur des industries traditionnelles sont susceptibles de recevoir une plus grande proportion d'immigrants non-qualifiés, ce qui contribue à renforcer cette spécialisation.

Labour market, international trade, and unemployment in a less developed country

This paper constructs a trade general equilibrium model for a less developed country with three sectors. One is the informal and un-tradable sector characterized by áexible wages, while the other two sectors are tradable, export and import sectors. The model imposes a binding minimum wage over the unskilled labour and e¢ cient wage distortions on the skilled labour. Comparative statics is driven to analyze the e§ects on the labour market as consequence of opening the economy, raising the minimum wage and the introduction of an augmenting productivity in the export sector.

Caribbean labour market challenges and policies

Includes bibliography

A poverty profile and functional aspects of Brazilian labour markets

Includes bibliography

FDI and the labour market: a review of the evidence and policy implications

This paper presents a series of results concerning the labour-market impact of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in the UK. The paper demonstrates that one of the crucial impacts of FDI is to increase wage inequality and the use of relatively more skilled labour in the domestic firms. This result is found to be a combination of two effects. First, the entry by a multinational enterprise (MNE) increases the demand for skilled workers in an industry or region, thus increasing wage inequality. Second, technology spillovers occur from foreign to domestic firms. As a result of these spillovers, relative demand for skilled workers increases in the domestic firms, further contributing to aggregate wage inequality and skill upgrading. The paper also considers how FDI impacts upon skill shares by productivity differentials between foreign and domestic firms. Finally, the policy implications of this are discussed, from the perspective of regional development, and the likely effectiveness of attracting FDI to reduce structural unemployment.

Effective models of employment-based training

Australia needs highly skilled workers to sustain a healthy economy. Current employment-based training models have limitations in meeting the demands for highly skilled labour supply. The research explored current and emerging models of employment-based training to propose more effective models at higher VET qualifications that can maintain a balance between institution and work-based learning.

Review of the progress in thin bed technology for masonry construction

Thin bed technology for clay/ concrete masonry is gaining popularity in many parts of the developed economy in recent times through active engagement of the industry with the academia. One of the main drivers for the development of thin bed technology is the progressive contraction of the professional brick and block laying workforce as the younger generation is not attracted towards this profession due to the general perception of the society towards manual work as being outdated in the modern digital economy. This situation has led to soaring cost of skilled labour associated with the general delay in completion of construction activities in recent times. In parallel, the advent of manufacturing technologies in producing bricks and blocks with adherence to specified dimensions and shapes and several rapid setting binders are other factors that have contributed to the development of thin bed technology. Although this technology is still emerging, especially for applications to earthquake prone regions, field applications are reported in Germany for over a few decades and in Italy since early 2000. The Australian concrete masonry industry has recently taken keen interest in pursuing research with a view to developing this technology. This paper presents the background information including review of literature and pilot studies that have been carried out to enable planning of the development of thin bed technology. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research.

Attraction and retention in rural and remote communities

Attracting and retaining a skilled labour force is a critical yet complex issue for rural and remote communities. This article reports the findings of a study investigating the current approaches to recruitment and retention in two separate Australian regions. Building on previously developed models, the research analyses the roles employers and the wider communities are playing, or potentially could play, in addressing issues that influence labour shortages. The findings of the research highlight the complexities of employee attraction and retention and emphasise the need for communities and businesses to work together to overcome labour shortages in rural and remote locations.

Thin bed masonry system: review and future prospects

Masonry is one of the most ancient construction materials in the World. When compared to other civil engineering practices, masonry construction is highly labour intensive, which can affect the quality and productivity adversely. With a view to improving quality and in light of the limited skilled labour in the recent times several innovative masonry construction methods such as the dry stack and the thin bed masonry have been developed. This paper focuses on the thin bed masonry system, which is used in many parts of Europe. Thin bed masonry system utilises thin layer of polymer modified mortars connecting the accurately dimensioned and/or interlockable units. This assembly process has the potential for automated panelised construction system in the industry setting or being adopted in the site using less skilled labour, without sacrificing the quality. This is because unlike the conventional masonry construction, the thin bed technology uses thinner mortar (or glue) layer which can be controlled easily through some novel methods described in this paper. Structurally, reduction in the thickness of the mortar joint has beneficial effects; for example it increases the compressive strength of masonry; in addition polymer added glue mortar enhances lateral load capacity relative to conventional masonry. This paper reviews the details of the recent research outcomes on the structural characteristics and construction practices of thin bed masonry. Finally the suitability of thin bed masonry in developing countries where masonry remains as the most common material for residential building construction is discussed.

Class contestations and Australia’s resource boom : the emergence of the ‘cashed-up bogan’

This article examines the figure of the ‘Cashed-up Bogan’ or ‘Cub’ in Australian media from 2006 to 2009. It explains that ‘Bogan’, like that of ‘Chav’ in Britain, is a widely engaged negative descriptor for the white working-class poor. In contrast, ‘Cubs’ have economic capital. This capital, and the Cub’s emergence, is linked to Australia’s resource boom of recent decades when the need for skilled labour allowed for a highly demarcated segment of the working class to earn relatively high incomes in the mining sector and to participate in consumption. We argue that access to economic capital has provided the Cub with mobility to enter the everyday spaces of the middle class, but this has caused disruption and anxiety to middle-class hegemony. As a result, the middle class has redrawn and reinforced class-infused symbolic and cultural boundaries, whereby, despite their wealth, pernicious media representations mark Cubs as ‘other’ to the middle-class deservingness, taste and morality.

Industry branding : attracting talent to weaker profile industries

There is global competition for engineering talent with some industries struggling to attract quality candidates. The ‘brands’ of industries and organisations are important elements in attracting talent in a competitive environment. Using brand equity and signalling theory, this paper reports a quantitative study examining factors that attract graduating engineers and technicians to engineering careers in a weak brand profile industry. The survey measures graduating engineers’ preferences for career benefits and their perceptions of the rail industry, which has identified a significant skilled labour shortfall. Knowledge of young engineers’ preferences for certain benefits and segmenting preferences can inform branding and communications strategies. The findings have implications for all industries and organisations, especially those with a weaker brand profile and issues with attracting talent.

Longitudinal Evidence on Educational and Occupational Outcomes Amongst South Sudanese Men from Refugee Backgrounds Living in Urban and Regional Southeast Queensland

Australia has continued to benefit from the human, social and economic capital contributed by immigrant resettlement over many years. Humanitarian entrants have also made significant economic, social and civic contributions to the Australian society. Since 2000, approximately 160,000 people have entered Australia under the refugee and humanitarian resettlement program; around 15% have come from South Sudan and one third of these are adult males. In response to the 2003 evaluation of the Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Strategy (IHSS), which recommended to seek further opportunities to settle humanitarian entrants in regional Australia, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has since encouraged regional settlement to “address the demand for less skilled labour in regional economies and to assist humanitarian entrants to achieve early employment”. There is evidence, however, of the many challenges faced by humanitarian arrivals living in regional areas. This chapter focuses on the educational and occupational outcomes among 117 South Sudanese adult men from refugee backgrounds. In particular, the chapter uses both cross-sectional (at first interview) and longitudinal data (four interviews with each participant at six-month intervals) to compares outcomes between men living in Brisbane and those living in the Toowoomba–Gatton region in Southeast Queensland.