IT jobs gone forever ... ? / IT professionals on SOL - how long??
Dec 3rd 2001, 11:16 pm
#1
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The following article in today's SMH scares me a bit as I am about to take up some
postgraduate studies in IS from on February with one of my goals to apply for the
newly established Overseas Student Skilled Migration visa but I am not sure how
chances are that the government actually might decide to take the IT professionals
from their SOL completely? Does anybody know how likely this is to happen? Is there
any official statement that indicates that IT professionals are to be given
preference for a certain timeframe? I have already studied Business here but only
until an Adv. Dipl. which would not even be enough for a 50p occupation assessed by
VetAssess (who do not take work experience into consideration).
Would be more than bad to learn in the middle of my studies that it was for nothing
... . Please tell what you think!
Cheers, Rollie
Blueprint for bosses: dump workers and head for Delhi Alexander Downer ... launched
the report suggesting companies move offshore.
By Tom Allard (http://www.smh.com.au/news/0112/04/n...national1.html)
Australian companies should consider moving operations to India to exploit lower
wages, says a Federal Government report.
For operations ranging from call centres to software development, the report says
there would be substantial cost savings in India.
It is the clearest Government endorsement yet of a strategy that Australian-based
companies are increasingly adopting to maximise returns in a globalised economy. The
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's economic analytical unit produced the
report - India: new economy, old economy.
It notes approvingly that the Indian Government has exempted the IT sector from its
labour and bankruptcy law regimes. It says Indian workers are well-trained and
English-speaking.
Launched yesterday by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, the report
sparked accusations of an "appalling" sell-out of Australian jobs at the expense of
the local information technology industry.
Among Australian-based firms already outsourcing operations to India is GE Capital,
which runs store cards for Coles Myer. It moved its call centre for customer queries
to New Delhi in 1999.
Its Indian workers were taken to Australia to see an AFL game and took home copies of
the video The Castle to help them develop the right accents and understand the
customers they would be dealing with over the phone.
ANZ Bank has had a subsidiary in Bangalore which employs 20 per cent of its
technology staff, or 450 people, including Australians. It plans to export throughout
the region software techniques it has developed there and, according to the report,
represents a good example of a two-way IT collaboration between Australia and India.
The report identified India's burgeoning information technology and "IT-enabled"
sector as the most promising for Australian firms. India has about 350,000 software
engineers on low wages involved in software development and trains up to 50,000 new
workers a year.
There are another 70,000 people in its IT-enabled sector, which includes call
centres, data processing and other "back office" administrative and processing tasks.
"Investment in India offers Australian firms the chance to lower their software
development wage costs substantially, while maintaining quality," the report says.
"Australian firms also can outsource or relocate their back office operations, taking
advantage of India's considerably lower wages in this area."
The Community and Public Sector Union, which represents communications and IT workers
in private firms such as IBM, was shocked by the report.
"Most Australians would be alarmed that our Government is advocating that our firms
export jobs overseas," said the union's national secretary, Wendy Caird. "There is
already a lot of pressure on Australian jobs at the moment in the sector. The
Government should be thinking of emulating the Indian Government and providing more
support to keep jobs and expertise in the sector in Australia."
But a spokeswoman for Mr Downer said the report was about making companies more
competitive, which would create jobs in net terms.
Prominent trade analyst Andrew Stoeckel, from the Centre for International Economics,
endorsed the report, saying one of Australia's big export success stories - the fast
ferries produced in Tasmania - took components from France, the US and Italy, among
other countries.
"Firms should source their business inputs from wherever in the world and at the
lowest cost," he said. "That means there exports will have the best chance of doing
well and creating jobs."
postgraduate studies in IS from on February with one of my goals to apply for the
newly established Overseas Student Skilled Migration visa but I am not sure how
chances are that the government actually might decide to take the IT professionals
from their SOL completely? Does anybody know how likely this is to happen? Is there
any official statement that indicates that IT professionals are to be given
preference for a certain timeframe? I have already studied Business here but only
until an Adv. Dipl. which would not even be enough for a 50p occupation assessed by
VetAssess (who do not take work experience into consideration).
Would be more than bad to learn in the middle of my studies that it was for nothing
... . Please tell what you think!
Cheers, Rollie
Blueprint for bosses: dump workers and head for Delhi Alexander Downer ... launched
the report suggesting companies move offshore.
By Tom Allard (http://www.smh.com.au/news/0112/04/n...national1.html)
Australian companies should consider moving operations to India to exploit lower
wages, says a Federal Government report.
For operations ranging from call centres to software development, the report says
there would be substantial cost savings in India.
It is the clearest Government endorsement yet of a strategy that Australian-based
companies are increasingly adopting to maximise returns in a globalised economy. The
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's economic analytical unit produced the
report - India: new economy, old economy.
It notes approvingly that the Indian Government has exempted the IT sector from its
labour and bankruptcy law regimes. It says Indian workers are well-trained and
English-speaking.
Launched yesterday by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, the report
sparked accusations of an "appalling" sell-out of Australian jobs at the expense of
the local information technology industry.
Among Australian-based firms already outsourcing operations to India is GE Capital,
which runs store cards for Coles Myer. It moved its call centre for customer queries
to New Delhi in 1999.
Its Indian workers were taken to Australia to see an AFL game and took home copies of
the video The Castle to help them develop the right accents and understand the
customers they would be dealing with over the phone.
ANZ Bank has had a subsidiary in Bangalore which employs 20 per cent of its
technology staff, or 450 people, including Australians. It plans to export throughout
the region software techniques it has developed there and, according to the report,
represents a good example of a two-way IT collaboration between Australia and India.
The report identified India's burgeoning information technology and "IT-enabled"
sector as the most promising for Australian firms. India has about 350,000 software
engineers on low wages involved in software development and trains up to 50,000 new
workers a year.
There are another 70,000 people in its IT-enabled sector, which includes call
centres, data processing and other "back office" administrative and processing tasks.
"Investment in India offers Australian firms the chance to lower their software
development wage costs substantially, while maintaining quality," the report says.
"Australian firms also can outsource or relocate their back office operations, taking
advantage of India's considerably lower wages in this area."
The Community and Public Sector Union, which represents communications and IT workers
in private firms such as IBM, was shocked by the report.
"Most Australians would be alarmed that our Government is advocating that our firms
export jobs overseas," said the union's national secretary, Wendy Caird. "There is
already a lot of pressure on Australian jobs at the moment in the sector. The
Government should be thinking of emulating the Indian Government and providing more
support to keep jobs and expertise in the sector in Australia."
But a spokeswoman for Mr Downer said the report was about making companies more
competitive, which would create jobs in net terms.
Prominent trade analyst Andrew Stoeckel, from the Centre for International Economics,
endorsed the report, saying one of Australia's big export success stories - the fast
ferries produced in Tasmania - took components from France, the US and Italy, among
other countries.
"Firms should source their business inputs from wherever in the world and at the
lowest cost," he said. "That means there exports will have the best chance of doing
well and creating jobs."
