Geoscientist Education and Employment

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5 February 2009

The Hon. Julia Gillard, MP Minister for Education
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Minister for Social Inclusion
Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600

Dear Minister,

Geoscience Education, Employment and Implications for Australian Geoscience Capability

The Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG) is the leading professional institute that exclusively represents the professional interests of geoscientists employed in all sectors of industry, government and education throughout Australia.

AIG has deep concerns regarding the current state of geoscientist employment and geoscience education in Australia, which have serious implications for Australia's geoscience capabilities, including our nation's technical resources to deal with practical issues at the core of ensuring the sustainability of our resource industries, management of water resources and addressing issues associated with climate change.

Public perception, interest and understanding of geosciences in Australia, in contrast with many countries, is closely linked to our resource industries. More than 80 percent of geoscientists work in the exploration and mineral and energy resources sectors. Geoscientists are specifically trained to develop a deep and unique understanding of processes that affect all natural systems that shape our country and Earth as a whole that is fundamental all aspects of environmental and resource management. It is these core skills that resource industries value due to mineral and energy resource deposits being the product of some of the most complex interactions of Earth systems and processes that also affect all other aspects of the environment in which we live.

The key issues Australia currently faces in this context are:

Few students receive any exposure to geoscience in their education prior to commencing University studies. There has been a long, gradual decay of geoscience teaching in high schools in particular, that AIG and other Australian geoscience societies have been working hard to redress through programs to develop curriculum material and provide training for science teachers.
Geoscience departments at Australian universities are affected by high costs and fluctuating enrolments. Effective geoscience education requires both specialist teaching resources and taking students into the field to observe and learn to interpret how natural, geological processes operate. This requirement is not adequately addressed by current funding models, as they are for broadly comparable, arguably more applied subjects such as agricultural science.
Interest in geoscience education is currently intimately linked to employment prospects in the exploration and mining industry. This reflects the high proportion of geoscientists that are employed in this sector, a situation that will change as Australia's economy adapts to address challenges created by climate change, the need for more effective resource management and remediation of damage caused by a lack of attention to these issues in the past.
The geoscience skills base is ageing. A lack of new graduates is resulting in an increase in the average age of geoscientists working in Australia and a lack of experienced professionals to fill supervisory and management positions, affecting sustainable development of resources, public geoscience programs and geoscience education at all levels.

We propose that urgent action is required to:

Reduce cyclicity affecting the resource industries generally, and the exploration sector in particular.
Support geosciences as a core field of study in the high school curriculum.
Secure adequate and ongoing funding for tertiary geoscience undergraduate and postgraduate education.

The exploration, mining and energy resource industries have vigorously advocated the implementation of a flow-through share scheme to help exploration companies secure much needed investment capital for a number of years. Canadian experience has shown that such schemes help to reduce volatility in the availability of capital for junior explorers in particular that are revenue neutral at worst and can promote economic growth and, importantly, provision of social infrastructure and benefits, particularly in rural and remote communities due to the high expenditure multiplier associated with exploration expenditure. A healthy exploration sector promotes interest in geoscience careers amongst talented graduates, many of whom during their education and their development of core geoscience skills, become more aware of, and attracted to the broader opportunities for geoscience professionals.

Students need to be exposed to geosciences as part of their high school science education. AIG and other geoscience societies are committed to our existing programs in this area but seek action from governments at both Commonwealth and State level, to ensure that geoscience becomes a core and widely available subject in the science curriculum.

The unique needs of university geoscience departments need to be addressed urgently to ensure students studying geoscience are able to develop the core skills that are so important in so many fields, on which specialist skills may be developed through postgraduate study and professional experience. Experience has shown that Australian undergraduate students are unwilling to travel to complete their education, making amalgamation of small geoscience departments counterproductive. Existing departments need to be adequately resourced in order to provide quality teaching that will attract students.

Australia is at risk of being unable to meet the demand for core skills in sustainable resource development and dealing with environmental and climate change issues. This is clearly contrary to Australia's economic, environmental, social and even strategic interests.

The impacts of this deficiency will be felt throughout the community as a whole, particularly as the need to address environmental challenges become more apparent over coming years, which will result in more diverse demand for geoscience skills. This increased demand will be apparent globally. Consequently, Australia must be positioned to satisfy this demand from locally trained and based professionals.

We would welcome any opportunity to further discuss how these issues may be effectively addressed with you.

Yours faithfully,

Australian Institute of Geoscientists

Andrew Waltho
President

AIG Student Bursary Program

AIG's bursary programme for undergraduate and postgraduate students is generously supported by sponsors including: