The Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the government should permanently extend the COVID concessions allowing foreign students to work unlimited hours and consider extending the existing work rights of foreign students after graduation.
In January, there was a temporary relaxation of visa rules for up to 400,000 foreign students who were allowed to work extra hours under a temporary relaxation of visa rules to ease crippling labour shortages, amplified by the isolation of thousands of workers in response to COVID-19.
There was also an agreement reached at the Jobs and Skills Summit for changes to the post-study work rights of international students that allow specified degree holders to stay for an extra two years.
The working hours of international students will, however, again be capped in June next year.
“Skills and labour shortages hitting our members are ongoing and for labour intensive industries such as fast food and hospitality, foreign students have kept the doors open in many cases. International students have been important in filling the gaps created by a combination of labour shortages and COVID and flu absences,” Mr Willox said.
“We could easily soak up all the foreign engineering and ICT graduates, for example, and still be short of demand.”
At last week’s Jobs and Skills Summit, the government agreed to boost the migrant intake from 160,000 to 195,000 per year as well as to invest an additional $36 million to help clear the visa backlog.
While these moves were welcomed by the Ai Group, Mr Willox said it will not have an immediate impact on labour shortages that are currently impacting businesses of all sizes.
“Too many people are being left in a visa limbo. We are in a global competition for the world’s best talent and the more barriers we remove from the system the more chance we will have of attracting the best people to help fill our skills and labour gaps,” Mr Willox said.
