Australian universities will offer almost 30 short courses in the key areas of IT, engineering, science, health and education in an attempt to curtail Australia’s skilled worker shortage.
The 28 courses, or microcredentials, from 18 universities are designed to teach targeted skills that are more relevant for employers.
The microcredentials include rural nursing, nuclear science, drone mapping and Einsteinian physics for school teachers and are offered at universities such as RMIT University, La Trobe University, University of Technology Sydney, University of New South Wales and University of Canberra.
The grants have been provided under the Microcredentials Pilot in Higher Education program, which is designed to provide courses to as many as 4000 students by 2026.
“Microcredentials can help Australians upskill and reskill to prepare for the jobs of the future,” the minister for education, Jason Clare, said in a statement. The government will provide $18.5m in funding for the courses.
“This pilot means more Australians can get the skills in areas we need, such as teaching, nursing, and engineering.”
Data released in October last year revealed that the number of occupations experiencing a skills shortage in Australia had almost doubled in 12 months to reach a “staggering” level.
According to the National Skills Commission’s annual update of the skills priority list, there were 286 occupations with national shortages, compared with 153 in 2021.
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Newly listed occupations included dentists, paediatricians, a range of surgeons, specialised nurses, and intensive care and emergency medicine specialists.
Australian universities have been pushing for the introduction of a Hecs-style loan system to cover “micro-credentials” to encourage people to train through short courses since at least 2021.
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The issue was also raised at last year’s jobs and skills summit, where the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, called on “unions, business groups and the people who help run our world-class VET [vocational education and training] sector, to look at how we deliver immediate action on the skills shortages Australia is facing.”
But Andrew Norton, a professor in higher education policy at Australian National University, has argued against providing FEE-HELP loans for microcredentials.
“The government’s microcredential policy never had sufficient analysis of either how big the problem was or the potential side-effects of the solution,” he wrote on his blog last year.
“It was also ‘siloed’ policymaking, making decisions for higher education providers without considering other individuals and organisations operating in the same space.”
He also described Sunday’s announcement as “part of a bad trend towards bureaucrats deciding on individual courses that should be funded”.