Stop Saying There’s a Skills Shortage
The media in Australia has become fixated with the term "skills shortage". Time and again we read or hear stories bemoaning the fact that Australians are, if you believe the media, “under skilled”, particularly in the hospitality sector. But is it really a skills shortage that plagues our unemployed?
As an experienced immigration agent both at government level and in private practice, owner of immigration agency 'IMMIGATE', Diana Faraj doesn’t believe it is. In fact, she says it is not a skills shortage that we should all be worried about at all, but rather, an “attitude shortage”!
Many Australian workers simply don’t want to do menial or physically demanding work. The service industries are suffering enormously as a result and Gen Y – as in “Why do I have to work?” – is the main offender.
“My team and I are specialists in this area and can assist employers in the
hospitality industry facilitate sponsorship visas for overseas workers in various roles including
but not limited to; managerial, cooks, chefs and administration.”
-Diana Faraj, IMMIGATE Agency Owner
“My company has helped various restaurants and cafes address the 'attitude shortage’ they were experiencing and will continue to do so, because there really isn’t a short-term ‘local’ solution in sight. Until the attitudes of Australian workers change – and they’re not likely to if Gen Y is any sort of yardstick – the hospitality sector will ironically, continue to have to source migrant workers to survive.”
As a specialist service provider to the hospitality industry, more and more businesses are calling Faraj’s firm to enquire about 457 sponsorship visas and it isn’t because of any skills shortage. It’s because they are finding it almost impossible to attract local workers. It begs the question; with jobs plentiful in restaurants and hotels for example, why are owners struggling to fill vacancies domestically?
There are many benefits to Australian employers wanting to utilize a 457 sponsorship agreement to sponsor migrant workers into the country and Faraj’s firm is performing more and more work within the hospitality sector using this particular instrument.
