As the 2025 Federal Election nears, Engineers Australia has launched its Engineering Tomorrow report, which calls on all political candidates to support the need for a skilled workforce fuelled by a strong engineering capability.
The report outlines four priority areas and emphasises how engineers are critical to the nation’s prosperity:
- Secure Australia’s future through a boost to our national engineering capability. A national engineering surge could be informed by engaging Engineers Australia to deliver a rapid-response report with five key actions to dismantle existing obstacles and strengthen the engineering pipeline from school through to skilled migration.
- Set a target for 60,000 additional engineering graduates over the next decade. This would catalyse universities, industry and governments to collaborate on strengthening this essential professional pipeline.
- Establish additional senior engineering roles in the Australian Public Service, including a National Chief Engineer. This would ensure access for public decision-makers to critical technical and systems advice to inform procurement, programs and policy – addressing cost and time overruns in addition to minimising risk and increasing resilience in order to achieve the best, integrated, sustainable outcomes for Australians.
- Respond in full to the 2024 Pathways to Diversity in STEM report, implementing its recommendations for stable and sustainable action to increase diversity and inclusion in STEM.
These recommendations are designed to bolster the engineering workforce and prime the country to successfully embrace innovation opportunities into the future.
Understanding the skills pipeline
There are currently 546,905 qualified engineers in Australia, but only 56 per cent are working in engineering occupations, according to data from Engineers Australia’s statistical overview of the profession.
This presents critical challenges for Australia’s capacity to deliver on future projects, with around 70,000 engineers expected to retire in the next 15 years.
At the 8 April launch of the Engineering Tomorrow report at Western Sydney University, Engineers Australia CEO Romilly Madew AO FTSE HonFIEAust EngExec outlined the scale of the talent challenge.
“The report we are launching today looks at the inflows and outflows of engineers in Australia, and there are some key points of attrition,” Madew said.
“For example, many students don’t complete their studies, we lose graduates to other occupations, international students depart, domestic students migrate overseas, and then we have leadership progression – and people prioritising family and caring responsibilities.
“Without a strong, skilled and diverse engineering workforce, none of the infrastructure announcements made during this election campaign can be delivered on time or on budget.
“This is also true of other sectors in the economy – energy, housing and manufacturing, for instance. Let’s identify, attract and retain talented engineers to meet Australia’s current and future needs.”
Understanding the engineering workforce pipeline
Among the recommendations, Engineers Australia is urging the next government to commit to the full findings of the Pathways to Diversity in STEM report, which include making pathways towards engineering more accessible.
This means better support for students throughout their education, such as earn-and-learn program models.
“It’s not just about doing an engineering degree and being a graduate of a university,” Madew said. “It’s also about opportunities for all within the VET system.”
Jumpstarting innovation
Strengthening the engineering pipeline will be key not just to fill current talent gaps, but to bolster Australia’s economic growth and unlock the value of the “engineering dividend”, as Engineers Australia National President Dr Raj Aseervatham FIEAust CPEng EngExec explained.
“According to the 2024 Global Innovation Index, Australia had an indicator rank of 84, out of 133 economies, when it came to the percentage of total graduates in science and engineering,” Aseervatham said. “In a nation with so much growth, so much appetite for progress and so much capacity for innovation, 84 isn’t a ranking that makes sense to me.
“I know we can do better. And there is too much at risk if we don’t.
“Our ability to diversify the economy, strengthen sovereign capabilities, innovate and commercialise new technologies will depend on having engineers with the right skill sets.”
Engineers Australia Acting Chief Engineer Bernadette Foley FIEAust CPEng EngExec issued a clear call to action.
“The Engineering Tomorrow report demonstrates that Australia needs to jumpstart its engineering capability,” Foley said. “We need to take critical and urgent steps to secure our national engineering workforce – today and into the future.”
Explore the report’s full findings on the Engineers Australia website.