ProjectWise

"Skills Australia rates engineering at the top of the list of occupations requiring interventions to avoid significant risks to the economy"

Australia faces a number of crucial infrastructure challenges, with hundreds of billions of dollars in projects required over the next decade in road, rail, electricity, water and telecommunications.

The hard fact is we will fail to meet this demand, and waste taxpayer money, unless we urgently address two issues:  our engineering skills shortage and the outdated way we deliver major infrastructure projects.

An infrastructure skills partnership is required that involves collaboration between government, the private sector, employees and APESMA.

ProjectWise aims to:

• avoid infrastructure waste and maximise outcomes for the community.
• ensure community infrastructure is built wisely and professionally.
• build our capacity to efficiently roll out infrastructure and respond to disasters, including improving engineering capacity so that asset owners are informed purchasers.

The current shortage of engineers in Australia is well documented.  Engineers are essential for the design, rollout and maintenance of economic and community infrastructure. Engineering skills drive innovation, help create new products and systems, and consequently increase productivity.

A scarcity of these skills impacts on our international competitiveness and ability to innovate in a range of areas, such as reducing carbon emissions. Skills Australia rates engineering at the top of the list of occupations requiring interventions to avoid significant risks to the economy.

There is a clear relationship between the engineering skills shortage and waste in infrastructure projects, which leads to diminished outcomes for the community. A lack of scoping expertise is causing cost overruns of up to 20% on projects over $1 billion. In addition, 42% of projects are poorly scoped, leading to cost blow outs of up to 25% of project capital costs. 

Given the amount of investment required on infrastructure in Australia, we cannot afford this level of waste.

A further risk is our outdated approach to commissioning infrastructure construction and maintenance. Simply tendering projects to achieve the best price does not produce the best outcome for the community. Increased tender prices and delays are inevitable unless skills shortages are addressed.

Current processes result in under-investment in skills and training in a bid to keep labour costs low. A new approach is required.

ProjectWise will advocate for the following initiatives:

• Greater industry training of professionals through mechanisms such as cadetships and other better work integrated learning practices
• Facilitate more students in higher education and more trained professionals in the system.
• An entity that monitors all bids for projects to ensure that they have training plans in place and improve the supply of professionals in the industry. The entity would include representation by industry, employee groups and government. It would be funded by government and through hypothecation by successful bidders for infrastructure projects.
• Mandated training programs for successful bidders in government funded infrastructure projects.

For more info log in and download the ProjectWise Overview