Defence Industry has for many years been the poor cousin to the mining and construction sectors. Unable to compete on price due to a fairly static demand, but that’s all changing.

The Federal Government has committed close to $200 Billion, to Defence manufacturing, maintenance and support over the next 10 years.

Currently one of the biggest concerns is, does Australia have a capable Defence Industry workforce? After suggestions we couldn’t build a canoe, who would want to get into highly politicised growth industry?

The mining and ICT industries have used 457 visas to address the skills shortages in the past, yet this avenue may not be available to Defence Industry.

Complex and sensitive systems are woven throughout defence projects, be it communications and radar components, through to special metallic compounds in armour plating there is undoubtedly a need to ensure the protection of systems and their specifications.

In my many conversations with Defence and Industry the same concerns arise, how can we deliver all of these projects? How will we build a workforce that can?

There are a many approaches one could take to addressing this skills shortage, today I want to talk about just one solution.

With a change in operational tempo, many defence personnel are now looking for new careers, careers beyond the uniform. This is not just an Australian phenomenon, the same true of many of our major defence partners.

Skills Australia several years ago indicated that ex service personnel were well suited to Defence Industry, their technical knowledge in the areas of trades and engineer and their attitude and understanding of the operational environment, together with the ability to “translate” between the uniforms and industry were invaluable.

Time and time again, I’m told that Defence skills just don’t translate into the private sector, they lack experience in the “real world” they are “institutionalised” or their leadership style is “autocratic”. These are all examples or stereotyping and conscious bias.

To help address this, ManpowerGroup USA has produced a white paper on Veteran employment based on our Global Candidate Preference Survey.  Over 250,000 veterans are entering the US job market each year,  action needs to be taken today. Whilst the white paper is based upon a US sample, I believe the same issues exist in Australia. A copy can be found here:

www.manpowergroup.us/veterans.

Now is the time for Australian Defence Industry to take the lead, engage and re-skill these highly trained professionals, to not only work within Defence Industry, but also to ensure Veterans continue to be a force to be reckoned with.