Austroads Workforce Capability Analysis and Strategies
Oxford Economics Australia conducted a comprehensive workforce capability analysis for the roads industry in Australia and New Zealand, identifying key skills gaps and providing potential strategic solutions to address these challenges.
Project background
Austroads, an association of the Australian and New Zealand transport agencies, is facing escalating skills gaps in the road infrastructure industry following COVID-19. The increasing demands on Austroads member organisations, coupled with labour market challenges and technological advancements, necessitated a comprehensive workforce capability analysis. In December 2022, Austroads engaged Oxford Economics Australia (OEA) to conduct this analysis, focusing on future infrastructure development, operations and maintenance requirements in Australia and New Zealand. The study aimed to identify key threats to workforce capability in the roads sector and provide strategies to address these challenges.
Approach and solution
The study aimed to quantify the skills gaps exacerbated by COVID-19 and provide strategies to address the challenges. The analysis involved a comprehensive literature review, quantitative workforce analysis, industry surveys, and consultations. The research identified key threats to workforce capability in the roads sector and outlined potential solutions to these challenges.
The study found that the infrastructure industry was facing significant skills gaps due to factors such as an ageing workforce, tight labour markets, and restrictions on skilled migrant workers. The report recommended strategies including increasing the supply of new workers through education and skilled migration, attracting more female workers into the industry, and improving productivity.
The findings and recommendations from this research are expected to help transport agencies to work collaboratively with educational institutions and other stakeholders to ensure strategic workforce planning needs are identified and addressed. The project also delivered an interactive dashboard presenting key results from the quantitative analysis alongside a dashboard-specific skills analysis. This tool will be updated biannually in 2024 and 2025 to help stakeholders monitor roads sector skills capability trends and developments.
Conclusion
Our analysis has highlighted the key challenges faced by Austroads member organisations. Additionally, our stakeholder consultation informed a number of recommendations to help overcome the challenges and the supplementary dashboard will enable the sector to monitor skills developments more readily in the future.
Get in touch
Adrian Hart
Director, Construction and Infrastructure, Oxford Economics
+61 (0) 2 8458 4233
Adrian Hart
Director, Construction and Infrastructure, Oxford Economics
Sydney, Australia
Adrian has over 23 years of economic analysis and consulting experience with Oxford Economics Australia, focusing on the infrastructure, building, maintenance and mining industries. Adrian has undertaken a wide range of consultancy projects for the public and private sector based on his detailed understanding of construction, mining and maintenance markets, their drivers and outlooks, the range of organisations operating in this space and the issues they face. This work includes deeper industry liaison, contractor and competitive analysis, pipeline analysis, demand and cost escalation forecasting, and industry capacity and capability projects for the public and private sector. He is the lead author of major reports but also undertakes briefings and workshops for senior management, board members and industry associations, leads in-depth stakeholder consultation, and facilitates and chairs roundtables between government and industry.
Ronal Kumar
Lead Economist
Ronal Kumar
Lead Economist
Melbourne, Australia
Ronal is responsible for the delivery of bespoke macroeconomic and commercial due diligence projects. He has experience in analysing and forecasting land registry volumes, port trade, property markets and construction in Australia’s transport, utilities and mining sectors. He previously managed various industry reports, including commercial and residential property reports and various infrastructure subscription products. Ronal has a strong interest in presenting ideas and stories through visualisations and analysing large and complex data sets.