Australian and Canadian governments are making dangerous policy decisions in vain efforts to better align labour market demand and international student enrolment, according to some prominent voices in the sector.
While employment outcomes for students are critically important, the recent emphasis on suggesting specific courses instead of critical skills is confusing students who are already concerned about Canada and Australia as study destinations.
Alex Usher, in his May 29 column entitled “Aggravatingly Clueless” is said the Canadian government’s goal to push international students into health and trades programs is “a combination of wishful thinking and outright crap.” Usher said governments are losing sight of the fact international education is a market and students buy what they want, that health and trades have significant barriers to entry the government needs to remove, and there are limited spaces in those highly needed programs.
Ian Aird, CEO of English Australia concurs with Usher and said the speed of change and lack of consultation is causing extensive damage.
“After more than a decade of policy and legislating in ways that prevent career alignment, it would take careful and systemic change and years of patience,” said Ian Aird, CEO of English Australia. “I don’t believe either government is showing any indication of achieving this shift any time soon.”
Aird said that the Migration Review in 2023 made it very clear there are long-standing systemic reasons underlying the disconnect between international students and filling workforce shortages. For starters, the Australian government’s response to the Knight Review back in 2010 led to policy and legislative settings that held the two apart. As a result, 86 per cent of students return home after they complete their studies and that is a massive loss to Australia.
He added that the current strategic framework being considered in Australia will give the government unprecedented power in what should be a free market economy. He said to expect governments can give seats to a university to fill and short term notice ignores the process of creating courses, getting student demand and going through the visa process.
“Building new courses or programs is a long term investment, it can take years,” he said. “It’s not something a uni can do based on a nod from government in September as suggested in the current Bill before parliament.”
Aird said if Australia needs certain skills, then Australia should determine what is needed to make those types of students interested, work with employers to see what would be needed to make them employ international graduates, and make it easy for them to stay and work upon graduation.
“I’d suggest there are some who would like to stay but it’s just too hard – the system is not supportive. It also true that some who stay will not be filling skills gaps. The system doesn’t support it or even select for it well.”
Those perspectives are being echoed by many who are bringing students into Canada.
“In all Western countries there is more need for certain professions, but there are barriers to bringing in health care professionals or trades experts that need to be addressed by the governments to make that happen,” said Mike Hennigar, CEO of Illume Student Services. “As well, the reality is we still need people to do all sorts of other jobs and if we lose sight of that, we will be less productive as a nation.”
IDP’s Global Emerging Futures research from April 30 found that the US has become the most preferred study destination for international students. Australia is now second with 23% of interest and Canada is fourth with 19%. Both Canada and Australia have dropped since the government changes were enacted. Some Canadian post-secondary institutes are reporting more than a 60 per cent decline in applications year over year. The report also indicates that prospective students research destination job markets before they apply and are very influenced by career prospects when deciding where to apply.
“Canadian schools have recently been given limited attestation letters called PALs, but those PALs are not as big of a problem as filling them,” said Hennigar. “Demand for a Canadian education has really declined and those who are being successful are going over and above to help them get their visas approved.”
Hennigar said conversion is key to success for Australian and Canadian universities. Hennigar quoted data that shows one Canadian college having 12 per cent visa conversion from Kenya and another at nearly 65 per cent by being very strategic about who they offer visas too, checking their financial records carefully and ensuring they are aligned with the Canadian workplace before they arrive.
Aird pointed out that universities have historically been told to focus on training students and to leave employment links to others.
“It takes allowances for work integrated learning and supports for and communications with employers to help them see the value in that, it takes expertise that currently most providers don’t have – they are educators, not job finding and placement services,” Aird said. “And they are that way because for the last 15 years government has made it clear what they should be.”
Some private companies have seen this disconnect and have been active in trying to help bridge the gap.
Gordon Scott is Managing Director at Successful Graduate, a PIEoneer award finalist for the last two years for digital innovation. Scott said giving students soft skills, irrespective of their programs, will be key to long-term success. He said the 2023 QS Global Employer Survey outlines that soft skills constitute more than 80 per cent of the selection criteria in graduate role descriptions.
“Employers don’t want to have to train graduates in (mostly) soft skills that they feel should be taught by the higher education sector,” said Scott. “The earlier that we as an industry can intervene and support soft skills acquisition, the earlier the industry will meet employer expectations.”
Denis Gravelle, co-owner of Devant, a technology platform that helps prospective and current international students use AI supported tools to understand the Canadian job market, create resumes and connect with employers, said students have always been driven by employment but now it has taken on a whole new level. More than 48,000 students are now using the platform and demand is growing. Gravelle was recently invited to speak to a large group of prospective students from India.
“It was so important to the students to search for jobs and to understand the skills they would need when they arrive,” said Gravelle. “Jobs was clearly their number one priority in deciding which offer they would accept and showing them real jobs they could apply for and how to do it, was big for them.”
Gravelle believes that it will be imperative for post-secondary institutes to be able to demonstrate that their students are successfully getting employment. Currently Devant has 48,000 students on their platform across a wide variety of schools. Those participating schools can see what jobs the students apply for and use that for improving their service and government reporting.
“If post-secondary institutes use data to clearly demonstrate that their students are getting jobs it will change the conversations that are happening,” said Gravelle. “And that same data can be used to support recruitment efforts at the beginning of the student cycle and provide useful metrics for institutional research.”
