TRANSCRIPT:
The numbers from the Productivity Commission in 2023 make for sobering reading: it found over a third of occupations were experiencing a national shortage.
That's five per cent higher compared to 2022, and 17 per cent higher compared to 2021, with most new shortages in high-skilled professions like healthcare, engineering and trades.
Settlement Services International [[S-S-I]] is a not-for-profit organisation supporting newly arrived migrants and refugees.
Its CEO Violet Roumeliotis says skilled migrants could help address these shortages - if their qualifications were recognised.
"Almost half of all permanent migrants in this country are working beneath their skill levels. There are people living in the communities and neighbourhoods with us, but they're battling a very cumbersome and very expensive recognition system. We have the perverse situation of dentists and doctors driving rideshare or engineers and electricians, stacking shelves and nurses cleaning offices."
Ms Roumeliotis says the skills shortage is not just wasting the valuable skills people have.
She says it's also hindering the provision of services.
Settlement Services International argues that the cost of getting qualifications recognised in Australia is getting in the way of addressing those issues.
For example, in dentistry - registration costs roughly add up $8,000 to obtain skills and qualifications recognition via theAustralian Dental Council.
And in construction Master Builders Australia says the cost has increased to over $10,000 for migrants to have their skills recognised.
Originally from Chile, Antonio Michell is a highly skilled physiotherapist who has been in Australia since 2018.
Before even setting foot in Australia, he treated more than 50,000 patients - but the process of having his qualifications recognised remains ongoing.
"I thought that coming to Australia was going to be really good for my career. I thought that when I arrived I was going to be able to show what I know what I was doing in the previous years. Unfortunately, I was quite shocked when I realised that none of that experience can help me in any way to get my qualifications done. And after a couple of years when I was working in construction sites, cleaning toilets and construction sites, sweeping floors, I worked as a waiter delivery driver. I found the option to work in academia."
Activate Australia’s Skills is a non-partisan campaign convened by Settlement Services International.
The alliance is made up of businesses, unions, social services and community organisations - working to improve skills and qualifications to address skills shortages.
A report released by Activate Australia's Skills notes 44 per cent of permanent migrants in Australia have skills that are not fully used and within this group, 60 per cent arrived through the skilled migration program.
Former Socceroo Craig Foster is an ambassador for Activate Australia's Skills.
"There are over 600,000 permanent migrants who are currently working below their educational capability level. That's amazing. And the numbers tell a very clear story to every Australian that is that we all win. Allowing people to work at their capability level in Australia supports the economy. It supports a rise in GDP, in fact, around 9 billion uplift in the GDP every year. Just from the positive nature of this program. You're talking about $70 billion uplift over the next 10 years. The numbers are clear, the program is there. All we need is the policy and the support from the federal government and from every Australian. It's an absolute no brainer to make sure that everyone in this country can work at their level of education and capability."
Violet Roumeliotis says the alliance has a number of key recommendations it would like the government to action to assist both migrant workers and industry.
It includes asking for government assistance to establish migrant and refugee employment hubs which would further assist people with qualifications qualified to get back into their professions.
"We have four asks of government: to create a national governance system of recognition and to establish an ombudsman with an ability with powers, regulatory powers. Secondly, to introduce a seamless national process for recognition, one source of truth with very little red tape. Thirdly, to ease the costs of getting recognised; and to establish or create a online portal so that people can actually navigate the process and have it in language as well."
In the meantime, Mr Michell wonders how much longer he will have to wait before he can officially starting working as a physiotherapist.
"It's been already almost eight years and I'm still in the process. I had really good options outside of my working field, but it's been eight years since I haven't practiced. So even if I finished the process, I would probably have to start as a junior physiotherapist or someone that just finished a bachelor degree. So I think from that perspective, at least for me, it's been a huge delay in my career."
