International students – our new workforce

International Students work needs

Each year Metro Melbourne has 500,000 International Students attending its 8 universities. Any visit to Melbourne will give your the picture. International Students overwhelm the city and its services. They are keen to study hard and build their careers. They represent big money to Victoria – about $9 billion a year. But they are stuck for work opportunities. They cannot find the jobs or the internships. There is a bigger problem as many have paid for work permits. They feel entitled to get local jobs. Most have top skills in the technical subject fields – STEM subjects. They want to apply their knowledge in practical situations.

Gippsland opportunity

Discussion among International Students is opening awareness of regional job opportunities. The recent federal election raised questions about how to treat these International Students as something more than just visitors. They are not. just visitors. They are a service industry. They want to understand Australian culture. They want to understand professional Australian work. Their families want these International Students to build business relationships. Hospitals and health centres have been popular test grounds for these International Students. They come into health employment as doctors, nurses and technologists.

Other Gippsland businesses have the opportunity to employ the wisdom of International Students. Some are. I have seen local Vet practices employing trainees from Melbourne University and medical practices with nurses from Charles Darwin University. The professional skills work experience demand from International Students is high from around Australia.

Gippsland needs to establish pathways for these International Students and their home-based families. International Students are an industry at the same time as dairy is in decline. Gippsland recruitment agencies are not  yet connected to this labour market. Many International Students would not have the confidence to travel into the Gippsland region.

Where is the Gippsland pathway?

The population of Gippsland is going to expand. Global relationships will be part of this expansion. Overseas markets will increase in value. International Students are potential workers with overseas connections. They often speak more than one language. Gippsland does not have its own university. It needs to create a Professional Skills Centre that provides this pathway. Warragul is a logical home base to lead Internship and workplace placements. Baw Baw Professional Skills Centre could easily sell itself to a range of universities for placement purposes. Such a Centre could provide a new line of job opportunities to service the metro Melbourne teaching institutions. It could lead innovation in Gippsland. The Professional Skills Centre could become an arm of a Melbourne university to compensate for the loss of the Monash relationship.

Professor Murray Cree

Warragul