Why some countries need more skilled professionals?

Today I came up with an interesting topic “Why some countries need more skilled professionals?” You may simply say it is a demand and supply issue of labour. Yes, I agree with you. There is more demand for skilled professionals and a limited supply of them.

Before going further, why should you refer to this article? What does this mean to you? Let me provide you an example – a light bulb in your living room is flickering! What you do first?

You try to identify the problem by checking its connection or the wear out of the bulb. This process aids you to address the issue accordingly.

Similarly, when you know the reasons why some countries need more skilled professionals? You can take informed decisions irrespective of which visa you choose and plan your journey accordingly. For example, as an international student, you can think of what courses to pursue; as a migrant, you can work on improving the skills and experience required.

During my research, I identified five key reasons for this imbalance of workforce:

Few domestic students are admitted to STEM Courses: 

STEM is an acronym for courses in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. I visited local schools in Australia and interacted with some senior high school students. After interacting with them, I realised that only a few students are interested in STEM programs (I am talking about schools located away from the major city suburbs.). This could be due to a lack of exposure to STEM jobs.

During my visits, one student inquired me about the education required for a career in Accounting. I told him “you need a bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Business” then a professional qualification from  recognised professional bodies such as CA or CPA. Completion of these courses makes you a qualified Accountant. A qualified Accountant can start earning from $50-$100k depending on the experience”. After listening to my reply, he said “Why to study complicated subjects for several years when you can start earning the equivalent amount of money as a trade professional as soon as you finish high school?” He again added, “My Dad earns double the amount of what you said.” From this conversation I understood, perception also matters.

A good attribute developed countries have is the dignity of labour. They have respect for every profession.  Plumbers earn as equally as the Doctors.

Unable to afford the university fee:

You can’t believe this but this is the fact! Despite the efforts by the government to encourage students to pursue higher studies by granting them student loans, many students however find it burdensome. A number of instances in Australia where students had to end up in 100’s of thousands in student loans. Only a few students are financially supported by their parents. Many students consider completing a university degree as a huge commitment financially and mentally.

You can listen to this article in this youtube link

Ageing population:

The proportion of people aged 65 and over are 15-18% in Australia, the USA, and the United Kingdom. It is estimated that this proportion is going to increase by 2-3% in the next 2-3 years. As per the Australian Institute of Health and welfare, over one in seven Australians are aged 65 and over. It is projected that the older generation continues to grow and is projected to more than double by 2057. This shows developed countries are having more senior citizens than ever. These generations are not adequately replaced with the younger generation because of changes in culture and lifestyles. For example; the Baby Boomer generation (born during 1946-1964) maintained a minimum of 3-4 kids in the family while Gen X and Y (born after 1964) are having only 1-2 kids and sometimes with no kids. So decline in population is one of the serious problems in the developed countries.

 Rapid technological changes:

Rapid technological changes are also one of the reasons for the increase in demand for skilled professionals in developed countries.
Technological changes generate demand for young professionals in three ways:

• The current workforce has climbed up the career ladder or retired and thus more vacancies created.
• The adoption rate of current technology in the current workforce may be slower than required. Learning new technology every 6 months may not be someone’s cup of tea.
• Technologies are creating more jobs than ever.

As you may know, developed countries invest millions of dollars in innovation. This resulted in the evolution of companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and many other high-performing global organisations. As per the Research Organisation Mckinsey, a study revealed new technologies would bring a net addition of 2.4 jobs created for every job destroyed.

I completely believe in this statement because 10 years ago I never heard about jobs such as Social Media Manager, Blockchain Strategist, Cyber Security, Uber Driver, Data Scientist, and many other jobs in digital technology.

Skills Gap between employers expectations and new graduates skillsets:

In a McKinsey survey of young people and employers in nine countries, 40% of employers said lack of skills was the main reason for entry-level job vacancies. 60% said that recent graduates were not adequately prepared for the world of work. There were gaps in technical skills such as STEM subject degrees but also in soft skills such as communication, teamwork, punctuality and creativity.

I agree with this survey, when I completed my study Masters of Business Administration 16 years ago, I was not 100% unaware of what jobs are available for my degree and what skills the employers need. Currently, I am meeting a number of international students through this blog; I still evidence this tradition.

I want to end this article with a quote I have learned through my experiences, and I don’t know if someone had already said this quote earlier “Education shows who you are, skills you own tells your worth.”
To illustrate further, if you have a degree in Engineering, I can tell you from your certificate you are an engineer. If you don’t have adequate skills to perform Engineer’s job, you are worth zero and maybe unemployed forever in your field of study.

I have experienced this personally, and nobody cares how many degrees you have unless you have a good skillset. This is proven by companies such as Zoho, Google that 2%-3% of their employees do not have formal degrees.