Australia and New Zealand’s infrastructure plans are ambitious. Australia currently has $230 billion in planned, committed, or in-progress public infrastructure projects, and a similar pipeline is projected in New Zealand. However, both countries are facing ongoing challenges when it comes to workforce capacity.
According to Professionals Australia, we’re experiencing a growing crisis when it comes to a shortage of engineering skills in the region. Modelling suggests that Australia alone will face a skills shortage of approximately 200,000 engineers by 2040 unless drastic pipeline interventions are undertaken.
Interestingly, data from the Australian Council of Engineering Deans (ACED) shows that Australia produces roughly 18,000 to 20,000 engineering graduates annually across all tertiary education levels. While the graduate market is strong, with 80% to 85% of engineering graduates secure full-time employment within two months of completing their degree, long-term workforce data from Engineers Australia shows that only 56% of qualified engineers are working in engineering occupations.
So the question is: What’s causing this drop-off? And what interventions can be deployed to plug the leak in our workforce pipeline?
The Drop-Off
An engineering degree is a highly valuable asset outside the traditional profession. Equipped with mobile and transferrable skills in problem-solving, modelling, and systems-thinking, engineers often pivot to analytical roles in IT, data analytics, banking, and management consulting.
Additionally, it is well-documented that young engineers often experience high workloads and burnout within highly delivery-focused, high-pressure environments. This attrition is heavily amplified by a structural bottleneck.
Aaron MacNish is currently the Chair of the Young IPWEA Committee, an engineer, and the Manager of Fleet Servies at the City of Wanneroo. He says “In my experience in the industry, I’ve seen a tendency for mid-level roles to require engineers to take on the role of people manager, bid-winner or another function secondary from their technical engineering role. For some, this is perfectly fine, but what it means is that your attention and development is then split, as leadership and management are both learned skills that also need development and training.”
He also notes that “There seems to be a lack of progression available for purely technical engineers in that 5-10yr experience stage. They’re either placed too early into senior or principal roles, or they’re expected to try and develop their technical engineering still while managing teams of people.”
Aaron’s experience is echoed by analysis from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR), which indicates that while graduates enter the workforce with strong theoretical knowledge, they require intense supervision, mentorship, and structured training pathways to bridge the practical capability gap. Without this framework, many early-career professionals experience flat progression, finding themselves stuck on a professional plateau between graduate and mid-level roles.
Mentoring to Support Lifelong Careers
One possible intervention to curb the drop-off could be structure mentoring programs. The transition from university theory to real-world infrastructure delivery is a notoriously steep learning curve. While experiential, on-the-job learning is vital, structured mentoring programs are a proven mechanism to accelerate professional development. Specifically, industry research indicates that formal mentorship helps graduates acquire practical competencies faster, elevates workplace confidence, and allows emerging professionals to map out their career goals with far greater clarity than their unmentored peers.
Extensive research has also been conducted on the science of effective mentorship, and has highlighted best practices for mentoring include:
- A Structured Framework: A formal initiative that pairs a senior practitioner with a graduate or early-stage career professional and includes setting clear timelines and goals.
- Intentional Modelling: Beneficial relationships demonstrate effective techniques for decision-making, professional values, and collaborative skills that the mentee can learn.
- Psychosocial and Emotional Support: Mentors who actively listen and encourage the mentee can help them to build confidence and resilience when tackling complex technical problems.
- Career Guidance: Helping the mentee evaluate their strengths, challenge their assumptions or hesitations, and understand the steps they need to take to work towards career goals.
Courtney Shadbolt, Chair of Young IPWEA Queensland experienced mentoring as an early-stage career professional and commented: “Mentorship has played a pivotal role in my career, encouraging me to think bigger and step beyond my comfort zone. The guidance I’ve received has helped me approach my career with intention while having the confidence to say ‘yes’ to opportunities I may not have felt ready for.”
Are Cadetships an Alternative Path?
Formal cadetships in fields such as engineering, construction management, or project management could also provide an alternative, practical pathway to enable more students to enter the industry and local government.
Typically, cadetships blend formal study with continuous paid workplace employment. This structure gives students invaluable hands-on experience while completing their degrees, while providing infrastructure employers with a reliable stream of highly engaged, work-ready talent.
By embedding students directly within local government authorities or contractors, cadetships have the potential to deliver work-ready professionals who possess the technical and commercial skills needed to progress and could reduce the number of graduates who transition out of engineering into another industry.
Aaron MacNish notes that cadetships in local government could be a beneficial method for encouraging young adults to build meaningful careers right in their local communities. He says, “Engineering in public works, in particular local government, is a very practical function. The benefit of programs like cadetships is they lend themselves to be naturally more practical and less theoretical than say a university degree, they allow people to “earn while they learn” and have a constant cycle of learning and theory, and the benefit of immediately being able to put that into practice.”
Plugging the Leak
The scale of Australia and New Zealand’s infrastructure pipeline demands a workforce that is not only highly skilled but also sustainably retained. Ultimately, to solve the projected shortage of engineers in the coming years, we will need to look towards alternative solutions to ensure qualified engineers don’t continue to leave the profession. Options such as structured mentorship, redefining mid-level career pathways, or embracing cadetships could help the infrastructure and engineering sector to transform graduates into lifelong engineering professionals, ensuring these ambitious growth plans become a reality.
How Can You Help?
With close to 70,000 engineers projected to retire over the next 15 years, our industry is at risk of losing an unprecedented volume of institutional knowledge, practical risk-management expertise, and technical capability. This shift also presents an opportunity for IPWEA to provide greater support to our Young IPWEA members.
In the coming months, we’re looking forward to launching a brand-new online mentoring program specifically designed to connect senior public works professionals with graduates and early-stage career professionals across Australia and New Zealand.
If you’re interested in actively sharing your experiences and have the capacity to guide an aspiring engineer, we invite you to register your interest to become a mentor via this form. Similarly, if you feel you would like to benefit from mentoring, you can register your interest here.
Keep an eye on the Young IPWEA website for more information to come soon.
