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Last week, industry and local employment representatives from the Illawarra met to prepare a position for the upcoming National Jobs Summit in September. This was a crucial conversation led by Stephen Jones, Member for Whitlam, Fiona Phillips, Member for Gilmore, and Alison Byrnes, Member for Cunningham. We are fortunate to have such strong leaders advocating for our regions and communities.

At this workshop, local solutions were discussed including the issue of global workforce shortages, which is a complex and multifaceted dilemma. In seeking answers to our current skills shortages, it is clear that we will require big picture thinking and cross-sector collaboration and demand solutions that go beyond immediate short-term fixes.

The disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic has fuelled an acute scarcity of workers, rising inflation, shortages of accommodation and a soaring demand particularly in the health and social care sectors. Many of the proposed solutions to job shortages, including migration reform, affordable housing and accessible childcare are important, but the more crucial conversation needs to be 'what are the occupations of the future?' and 'how do we prepare individuals to not only be job ready, but life ready?'

Universities Australia Chief Executive Catriona Jackson comments that of the almost one million jobs expected to be created over the next five years in Australia, more than half will require a university degree, and university-educated workers are key to our nation's future and economic growth. Universities are also on the cutting edge of transformation, whether that be renewable energy, medical technology or other.

The University of Wollongong (UOW) is continuously driving ideas forward and inviting our communities on the journey. We welcome this dialogue as to what are the knowledge, skills and capabilities our students need for the future. The pandemic has caused significant disruption, underscoring the fragility of supply chains and also the importance of migration as part of our workforce planning.

As an anchor institution in the Illawarra region, UOW has played a critical role in building our local economy and community.

As an anchor institution in the Illawarra region, UOW has played a critical role in building our local economy and community. From its earliest beginnings, UOW was formed in partnership with industry and the strength of these relationships has continued despite changing economic and social conditions. The combination of industry employment and university education provides fertile ground in our community for fostering highly skilled graduates across many industries. As one example, during the program's 43-year long history, more than 600 UOW engineering students have completed a cadetship with BlueScope Steel.

BlueScope Steel's Port Kembla Steelworks offers a number of cadetship positions every year for UOW students studying materials engineering, mechanical engineering or electrical engineering. This program is very competitive and targets high performing students in their first, second or third years of study. The annual intake of cadets is between usually 10 and 15 students per year, and BlueScope currently has approximately 50 students in its cadetship program. As a result of this collaboration and other industry engagement our graduates are ranked number one across Australia for employer satisfaction.

As the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wollongong, I am continually impressed by the alumni I meet in our region and beyond. They are leading organisations and governments locally and internationally. Many of our alumni are the teachers preparing students for the future, the physicians and nurses caring for us when we are ill, and they are often the ones forging new frontiers in science and technology.

We know that economic productivity rises as the education level of the workforce increases, and we know - perhaps more importantly - that health and wellbeing also improve. A critical lesson of the pandemic has been the obvious widening of inequalities. A strong economy is more achievable when education and job opportunities are widely accessible across society. We need to create a culture of inclusion and accessibility, so that no one gets left behind. Anyone, anywhere, anytime, should be able draw upon their right to an education and a job.

This should be a focus of the National Jobs Summit. The focus on jobs of the future needs to go beyond the immediacy of the critical workforce shortages, to how we can ensure that not only our nation prospers, but individuals, families, and communities do as well. Critical to this goal will be access to education and UOW is excited to be part of the solution to creating a sustainable future for the Illawarra and a better world.

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