While information and communication technology professionals say work
is thin on the ground in some cities, industry figures point to a
future where more foreign workers are shipped in to plug the gaps
between what employers want and what's on offer locally.
Entity Solutions is one of the newest entrants to the market
of importing ICT talent. The contractor management firm finalised an
on-hire labour agreement late last month with the Department of
Immigration, enabling it to bring up to 50 ICT workers a year into
Australia, under the 457 visa program.
Businesses can use the program to sponsor workers from a
range of occupations for up to four years, should they be unable to fill
roles with qualified local staff. The process can be an expeditious
one, with many overseas candidates able to report for duty within days
of getting the nod.
Entity CEO Matthew Franceschini said a key part of
negotiating the labour hire agreement had been demonstrating that the
firm's clients had been unable to find appropriately skilled workers
from within Australia.
"We have been able to demonstrate that to the government," Franceschini said.
Our clients have skilled positions they are unable to fill. There's a global shortage of talent – it's as simple as that."
But in the ever-volatile ICT sector, one man's shortage can
be another's surfeit. Entity's announcement comes as local recruiters
and employers point to a slowdown in the market for contract staff.
Many ICT professionals are critical of the 457 visa system,
which they say makes it too easy for large companies to substitute local
staff with cut-price equivalents from overseas, either directly or via
third-party service providers.
"Those of us on reasonably good salaries are being replaced
by Indian or other international workforces at salaries significantly
less than enterprises would be paying their staff," one senior IT
network executive working on contract told IT Pro.
"There's an underlying theme here, in that the number of IT
jobs in westernised countries are probably not reducing by as much as
being reported, but merely being usurped by backdoor means through
offshoring."
Employers would rather hire locally but it was not always
possible, Franceschini claimed, and many clients around the country were
keen to find a quick solution which fulfilled their needs.
Entity plans to use its 457 quota to sponsor developers, programmers and software engineers into Australia.
They'll join the 90,280 skilled workers, 8800 of them in the
information, media and telecoms industry, who held primary 457 visas as
of 31 May, according to Department of Immigration figures.
The sector accounted for 10 per cent of the 47,980
applications received from July 2011 to May 31, with ICT positions
attracting an average annual remuneration package of $85,100.
Candidates most commonly hailed from the UK, India and
Ireland, with workers from these countries collectively accounting for
half of all 457 applications granted.
Successful ICT applicants included 1870 developer programmers, 1110 ICT business analysts and 1080 software programmers.
While recruiters continue to cite skill shortages outside the
southern capitals, particularly in the resource driven WA market, 7760
of the 8800 ICT hires on 457 visas were drafted for positions based in NSW and Victoria.
Head of listed recruitment services group Clarius Kym Quick said the
number of high tech 457 applications would rise significantly in the
future, if Australian students continued to eschew computer science and
information technology courses.
ICT enrolments
in local universities have halved over the past decade while in NSW
high schools, just seven per cent of students are studying Information
Processes and Technology, down from 17.9 per cent in 2003.
Economically-moribund Ireland, where the unemployment rate
has soared since the global financial crisis, had become an especially
popular source of willing-to-relocate, high tech workers, Quick said.
Some larger employers were forging their own links with overseas agents to improve their access to this talent pool, she added.
The chief executive officer of the Australian Information
Industry Association, Suzanne Campbell, said systemic issues in the
education system meant there was an ongoing and significant gap between
the supply and demand of ICT skills in Australia.
"Industry uses 457 visas to supplement that deficiency," Campbell said.
Holders of the 457 visa span the entire ICT industry, from
project delivery staff, software specialists and systems integrators
through to senior executives managing major projects and programs,
Campbell said.
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