DXP Consulting | Focus Areas

Closing the Door on 2024

8 January 2025

I got to close the door on 2024 on the most wonderful of personal highlights – the marriage of my brilliant daughter. She is the beautiful bride in white with my granddaughter in arms. I am the old lady in red awkwardly attempting to hide an inexplicable stain on my dress. Held one pandemic and two kids post the original date, this wedding was well worth the wait. It was an important reminder of what matters most in life – love and family. In this photo are 10 of my 11 siblings, their partners and their and my children. It provided a much needed sense of perspective.

On the work front it was a year of two halves. I won’t sugar coat it: the first half of the year was tough going. Consulting opportunities dried to a small trickle. It was small comfort that I was not alone. Other micro-consultancies I spoke to were similarly struggling. In the course of my work, I had the opportunity to assess the labour market for management consultants. My analysis confirmed that what I was experiencing and hearing were not isolated instances. The profession was struggling. Many attributed the struggles to the fallout of the much publicised troubles of the big players. Governments and other organisations were, as a consequence, building up and relying more upon inhouse resources. Many raised their hurdles and increased the hoops that prospective consultants must jump through in order to even be in the running. Perversely, it was the little guys that were impacted most by these changes as they thinned the market to the advantage of the big players who had the resources to respond. Less competition is not a solution to what is ailing the consultancy world. Particularly when it deprives the market of players who have the expertise and agility to provide direct assistance tailored to client needs.

I found myself scouring advertised vacancies in search of a ‘real job’. And suffering the demoralising reality of sometimes not even getting a look in for jobs I humbly know I could ace blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back. I will spare you a spiel (for now) about the importance of age to diversity, inclusion and, importantly, effectiveness. But I will not pretend that it does not make me angry.

The truth is, however, that my heart was only ever half in the job search. I love what I do. Call me cliché, but I like making a difference. Whether it is helping clients positively influence the policies of governments, or assisting them in identifying strategies that advance their objectives. I also continue to be rather fond of my clients, consultants, collaborators, stakeholders and others I have the good fortune to work to or with. They continue to be a source of challenge, wisdom, understanding and friendship that I am not in a rush to walk away from.

So it was a welcome relief when things got busy in the second half of the year. Very, but blissfully, busy. Driving this was policy developments in areas of expertise and client motivations to refresh or rethink their strategies. The following are a selection of highlights.

Making best use of refugee skills faster

Currently, nearly one in 10 migrants living permanently in Australia arrived here on humanitarian grounds. More than four out of five are of working age. Yet the evidence is that refugees in Australia have poorer labour market outcomes than other permanent migrants and the local born population. They are more likely to be unemployed. And, if employed, they are more likely to be working below their skill levels and earning relatively meagre incomes. With the passage of time, the labour market outcomes of refugees improve and get closer to those of their local born peers. However, even after living in Australia for two decades, gaps remain. Refugees fail to realise their full potential, economic opportunities are squandered, and fiscal gains are foregone.

Over the past decade a number of government programs and the initiatives of others have been piloted to recognise refugees’ credentials. I had the welcome challenge of examining what has and has not worked and why. What I found was that refugees face barriers to accessing and making best use of assessments. Access barriers include low awareness, language barriers, qualification recognition and lost or inaccessible documentation. Use barriers include difficulties navigating the labour market, their lack of networks and discrimination. Thus, while skills assessments and the verification of skills positively assessed, such as digital badges, are central to addressing refugees’ poor labour market outcomes, more needs to be done to support their access and use. My work identified initiatives necessary to overcome use and access barriers, thereby enabling refugees to make better use of their skills faster.

This work formed the basis of a compelling presentation delivered by my client to an international audience of like-minded organisations and individuals with the shared ambition of supporting credential recognition and portability. It’s ongoing use is as a means to inform discussions with policymakers.

Attracting global talent

In my 2023 review I observed that as that year drew to an end, a migration strategy had been delivered into an altered political climate. While business was keen to ease their skill shortages, and the public remained generally welcoming of migrants, some commentators were pointing their fingers at migrants as the cause of all sorts of evils, like housing shortages and inflation. The finger pointing continued with fervency over 2024. In that last review I spared you a lecture on the faults of the arguments. During 2024 I did no such thing. I was welcoming of a platform provided by one client, VETASSESS, to deliver a myth busting keynote to an audience of their stakeholders. I plan to update and turn that presentation into a blog to be shared on my website at a future date. As a teaser, what follows are the seven myths I covered juxtaposed against the realities.

Over 2024, into this muddled climate, the Government released for public consultation three matters that were offshoots of it’s migration strategy: a Consolidated Skilled Occupation List (CSOL), the points test which governs permanent skilled migration, and a review of regional migration settings. I worked with clients on their submissions to all three. This was work I was very happy to do as all play critical roles in shaping the future of migration to Australia. Let me explain: first on the CSOL and points test and next on regional migration.

For much of Australia’s history, there was little need to prioritise global talent permitted to enter Australia as the tyranny of distance limited migrant flows to individuals and families who could afford to come. In more recent history, the declining cost and increasing ease of travel has necessitated greater selectivity. Migrants assessed to possess the skills that Australia needs have gained in prominence in the migrant program since the mid-1980s. From the late 1990s, two key policy developments have worked together to prioritise the entry of migrants who can contribute to the nation’s economic development and growth – occupations lists and the assessment of prospective migrant qualities.

The CSOL and points test, if well-conceived and implemented, have the potential to prioritise the entry of migrants with skills that best enhance Australia’s future prosperity. Ideally these settings should work together to inform and manage demand for migration, relieve skills shortages, facilitate labour market matching and develop the nation’s human capital.

The CSOL has been released and scores amiably against these hallmarks. Working against this, however, is the raised income threshold for temporary skilled migration, as it does little to fill shortages for entry level and lower paid roles. It remains to be seen whether the CSOL will be used govern permanent as well temporary skilled migration.

We have yet to learn the outcome of the points test review. Or, more broadly, the conditions for permanent skilled migration. These are matters on my radar for the current year.

Nor have we seen the outcome of the review of regional migration settings. The process of assisting clients with their submissions on this review rendered me a convert to the cause. Regions are a crucial part of Australia's economy and character. Regional migration, alongside internal migration and investing in local talent, is vital to the vibrancy, strength and growth of Australia’s regions.

However, current regional migration settings fall short of what is required. There are conflicting and questionable definitions of what qualifies as a ‘region’. Regional migration settings are too often narrowly interpreted as those that entice prospective migrants to come, rather than those that support them to stay. Too often that enticement comes in the form of a lowered bar risking regions losing out on quality migrants best able to contribute to the future economic fortunes. The good news is that reform on all these fronts is possible and provides a positive candidate for policies to be floated in the run up to the Federal election.

Developing local talent

“The country’s top chief executives say the government needs to overhaul its skilled migration program and invest more in training the next generation of the workforce to reverse productivity falls and boost living standards.” I literally applauded this sentence when I read it in a recent article that featured in the Australian Financial Review. I kid you not. Because it embraces the genius and the power of the AND avoids the tyranny of the OR. Developing local talent AND sourcing global talent both matter. One is not a substitute for the other.

The two big ticket items impacting local talent released in 2024 were the Universities Accord and the National Skills Agreement. A positive aspiration of both is for more harmonised tertiary education and training, better enabling learners to pick their own pathways. The national target is that 80 percent of the workforce have a tertiary qualification by 2050.

The task of advancing harmonisation falls to the proposed new Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC). How the ATEC is structured and governed and what roles it is tasked with were the focus of one, of three, targeted matters for consultation over 2024. I helped inform client feedback on all three.

My long held view is that some of the more essential elements of a harmonic system are:

a credentials framework that not only brings vocational and higher education qualifications closer together, but can recognise the competency levels of a broader range of credentials, whether micro, meso, or mega (full qualifications), and supports their quality and liquidity;
national regulation of all credentials and recognised providers, in place of separate approaches for vocational and higher education; and
an envelope of Commonwealth and state government funds and income contingent loan entitlements where learners have agency to access and spend on learning opportunities recognised within the above framework over their lifetimes.

On all points I continue to hold out hope. On the first point, I remain hopeful that the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) review will be dusted off, refreshed and implemented. On the second, I am hopeful that a more outcomes-based and proportional approach to vocational education and training regulation will bring it closer to that employed for higher education. And that over time the regulators for each could be brought under the ATEC umbrella. On the third point the grounds for my hope are more tenuous. The Interim Report on the Universities Accord floated the idea of a Universal Learning Entitlement. While not recommended, the Final Report mentioned again the idea and the importance of first attending to other matters, including the top bulleted point raised above.

When it comes to the Government’s attainment target, I am more pessimistic. This is due to what I regard as flaws in the other two matters of targeted consultation – needs based funding and managed growth funding.

Released in December in conjunction with the Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) was a summary of decisions reached and next steps on the Universities Accord, covering all matters that were the focus of targeted consultation and more. Commendable is the extra funding promised higher education providers if they enrol more students from equity cohorts. This funding is to be used by providers to support the retention and attainment of students from those cohorts.

However, missing was any funding that would go direct to students that would help support their participation. Statistics shared by the Australian Bureau of Statistics provides a compelling illustration that financial reasons for not participating in further education and training are highest amongst the households in the lowest income quintiles. To really make a dent in the attainment target necessitates overcoming this financial barrier.

The proposed managed growth funding arrangements risk driving local enrolments down and not up. Not merely because of the long transition period. The arrangements cap the number of places supported and not the funding. This risks distorting provider decisions regarding the programs they accept students into in a manner that may not be well aligned to student demand. Further, while Indigenous student enrolments sit outside this cap and are demand driven, enrolments from other equity cohorts are not, but must be prioritised, making for a zero sum game. I maintain that if the Government is genuine about growth then at a minimum genuine (not the claimed “effectively”) demand driven funding should be available for all equity cohorts. More ambitiously, it should be available to all.

Informing strategies

What set 2024 apart from previous years is that informing the strategies of others occupied much more of my time. This was not an unwelcome development. Three matters that kept me busy were facilitating a strategy day for the Board of a network of finance researchers, working with a major TAFE on its strategy for financially sustainable growth, and assisting the crafting of the next economic development strategy for Melbourne’s West.

The first was repeat work having undertaken a strategic review for the network some years back and facilitated past strategy days both online and in person. The second is ongoing work where I have the delight of working with internal experts drawn from across the TAFE to develop a framework for classifying courses according to their growth potential and financial viability and distilling strategies for growth dependent on their classification. But it is the third – the next economic development strategy for the West of Melbourne – that I am eager to tell you more about.

As I live in Melbourne’s West, and have done so now for more than two decades, I viewed the request to assist with the strategy’s development as an opportunity to give back to a community I love. This is work I am doing pro bono for the West of Melbourne Economic Development Alliance (WoMEDA). WoMEDA is an alliance of significant institutions operating across the West of Melbourne, working in tandem with local government and engaging with industry. It aims to develop and champion strategies that foster regional collaboration, sustainable economic development, greater local job opportunities and increased community wellbeing.

In 2017 WoMEDA published its first strategy, focusing on three major employment precincts - Footscray, Sunshine and Werribee. The significant investments and initiatives inspired by WoMEDA’s advocacy have played an important part in the demographic growth, improved labour market outcomes and economic fortunes of the region.

The West of Melbourne is now the fastest growing region in Australia. By 2026 it will have a population of over a million. But, as a recent series of articles that ran in The Age succinctly put it, Melbourne’s booming West is experiencing significant growing pains. It is becoming increasingly clear that governments, plural, need to re-conceptualise the West of Melbourne as a major, state and national priority for city-building.

I have been working with the WoMEDA Board to analyse the current and emerging demographic and labour market situation, distil priority issues, identify opportunities and develop the next strategy. A consultation paper has been shared with stakeholders for feedback by March. The outcomes of this process will form the underpinnings of the 2025 strategy.

Looking ahead

I have started the New Year with a full plate. Which is exactly how I like it. This is not about the money (although, of course, I am rather fond of it). It is about the sense of fulfillment I get from working with others to make a difference. Doubtless there will be ups and downs over the road ahead. There always is. However, I will endeavour to keep a cooler head and enjoy the ride.

On a more personal note, which helps keep things in perspective, at Easter time it is my gorgeous, gentle, genius of a son’s turn to tie the knot. (Don’t tell him I called him gorgeous).

“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful’” (Joshua J. Marine)

Happy 2025!

Mary Clarke

Principal

DXP Consulting

M: +61 401 088 571

E: mary.clarke@dxpconsulting.com.au