Australia: Science And IT Students Struggle To Get Jobs Upon Graduation

[Megalith]

While majoring in a science or IT major is probably still a better idea than, say, theater arts, a report out of Australia would suggest that prospects aren’t as ideal as some would hope. Blame is being placed on lackluster education programs, as the number of graduates and available IT positions are comparable.

In 2015 only half of bachelor degree science graduates seeking full-time work had found it four months after completing their degrees, 17% below the average for all graduates. “Although many recent science graduates struggle in the labour market, things improve over time,” it said. “For 2011 bachelor degree science graduates, their full-time employment rate four months later was 65%, but three years later, in 2014, 82% of those who were looking for full-time work had found it. “While this is a considerable increase, it is below the 89% rate for all graduates.”

 

[Keljian]

Business IT is a very wishy washy business focused degree here in Australia, I'm not really surprised.

Basically it consists of project management and analytics frameworks. This in and of itself isn't a bad thing, however, a grad is expected to do menial work(eg Helpdesk) and occasionally be exposed to greater things like projects. So we're training a generation of IT majors who have the knowledge for level 3 jobs, when they will start at level 1 - therein lies the disconnect.

Ironically internship programs aren't a big thing here in Australia, which sucks as some sort of trade focused IT apprenticeship leading to a Bach degree in business (alongside work) would probably be a better way of approaching the problem.

 

[dgingeri]

Being an IT professional for 19 years, I can confirm that IT education is absolutely dismal. It takes colleges 5-10 years to come up with a curriculum and get it approved, making it completely out of date by the time it gets to the students. They don't teach the most vital skills for IT work: logic, troubleshooting, project management, learning and evaluation of new technology, and critical thinking. They also don't usually pair it with business classes so that IT people know the environment they will be dealing with, or management so they have some sort of upward path.

 

[umeng2002]

Hard Science Majors should only be pursued if you're going to go for a PhD. I mean it's a great degree to show you're smart, but no one hires a science researcher with a 4 year degree in Physics.

Engineering, Medicine (nursing), etc... are more "practical" degrees and areas to study. The easiest way to sum it up is what my professors told us: "The product of a scientist is a scientific paper. The product of Engineers are actual products."

One of my Engineering professors worked for NASA and said the Physics on the project knew basically nothing about designing mechanical system (of course they knew the underlying physics but their designs wouldn't work in reality) - their role is to devise the experiments... Engineers take scientific research and ACTUALLY DESIGN FUNCTIONING devices.

 

[HoffY]

Engineers take scientific research and ACTUALLY DESIGN FUNCTIONING devices.

And then the people that fabricate said engineered products then have to re-design it to actually be functional and POSSIBLE to fabricate.

Because i can assure you... there are PLENTY of "engineers" that also have no idea how things are manufactured/fabricated/created.

And yes... i'd suggest the IT sector would be like this also due to the fact that our LNP Government, for the passed 3 years now (and for the next 3) have absolutely FUC**D what was going to be a world class communications network of fibre to the home by killing the 4 year build mid-sail and instead... "upgrading" the old copper i.e. NOT building a new comms network at all and just tacking on last century's tech and assuming it'll be perfectly suited for the next 50+ years. Which anyone with half a brain knows... just wont cut it. And all for the grand price of $10bn more then what the FTTH build was going to be.

Yes. I. Am. Pissed. And if i had children, i'd be even more pissed that they now have far less job prospects for their future in this global digital market. Its pitty teh AUS public are dumb as dog shit and believe all the Main stream media bull!

 

[mlcarson]

With respect to IT, it's the H1B Visa program in the USA that's killing their job prospects. I'm not sure what the Australia issue is. I think part of the problem is that not many companies hire IT people as help desk and then promote them to anything else higher up. That stopped a long time ago in the companies that I've worked at. There's a glut of IT workers thanks to the importing of foreign workers and the outsourcing of everything possible to countries like India. I don't need to hire fresh employees right out of college and train them anymore since there's going to be somebody that I can hire with the experience level that I need. At a certain point, years of experience don't mean anything because of the changing nature of technology. For most professions, this isn't a problem like it is for IT. So students going into IT run into a situation where they are unhireable without experience and when they do gain a lot of experience, they aren't paid accordingly. So why go into a rather difficult field of study when the prospects are so bad?

Sales, Marketing, and Project Management seem to be much more respected in the corporate world than IT. The best day in IT is when nothing breaks and then nobody notices you. If something's broken, it's an IT problem and you get the blame whether it's deserved or not.

 

[alxlwson]

And then us lowly technicians take Mr. Engineer's "looks good on paper" product, and redesign it in the field to make it actually work

 

[pcgeekesq]

And then us lowly technicians take Mr. Engineer's "looks good on paper" product, and redesign it in the field to make it actually work

You'd have a hard time redesigning the microprocessors I used to design for Intel in the field, friend. "No user-serviceable parts inside" ain't the half of it.

 

[alxlwson]

You'd have a hard time redesigning the microprocessors I used to design for Intel in the field, friend. "No user-serviceable parts inside" ain't the half of it.

Haha, this is very true.

 

[Staples]

Wonder if they have an h1b program. That is why IT is not easy in the US either.

 

[cdr_74_premium]

And then the people that fabricate said engineered products then have to re-design it to actually be functional and POSSIBLE to fabricate.

Because i can assure you... there are PLENTY of "engineers" that also have no idea how things are manufactured/fabricated/created.

And yes... i'd suggest the IT sector would be like this also due to the fact that our LNP Government, for the passed 3 years now (and for the next 3) have absolutely FUC**D what was going to be a world class communications network of fibre to the home by killing the 4 year build mid-sail and instead... "upgrading" the old copper i.e. NOT building a new comms network at all and just tacking on last century's tech and assuming it'll be perfectly suited for the next 50+ years. Which anyone with half a brain knows... just wont cut it. And all for the grand price of $10bn more then what the FTTH build was going to be.

Yes. I. Am. Pissed. And if i had children, i'd be even more pissed that they now have far less job prospects for their future in this global digital market. Its pitty teh AUS public are dumb as dog shit and believe all the Main stream media bull!

Well... on the bright(?) side, let me tell you that is the way things are going in many places. It's not just only in Australia.

 

[HoffY]

It's not just only in Australia

Oh yeah... i suspected as much! WE are (usually) 10 years behind the good ol' U.S.of.A!). But that 10 year delay is closing it seems.

 

[Dr. Righteous]

The job markets are FLOODED with people waving a degree around and wanting to start with a huge salary.
Those jobs are limited.