Engineer shortage a cultural issue?

There are plenty of experts who'll tell you that Australia can't sustain local automotive manufacturing. The value of the Aussie dollar is too high, the domestic new-car buyers too few, the market itself too diverse and there are too many players already entrenched here.

If that's so, how is it that the country faces a current shortage of skilled engineers?

Why, indeed, would an organisation such as the Auto Horizon Foundation be encouraging more kids to train for careers in design and engineering?

The man who runs the Auto Horizon Foundation is Brian Tanti, a fellow who is passionate about the automotive industry and how Australia has a part to play within it. Speaking during a media event yesterday, the Foundation's CEO explained that providing practical instruction for the kids who are actually keen to join the manufacturing industry is tough and expensive. That's why the Foundation draws upon voluntary help from designers and engineers already employed within the industry.

"What you're looking at is close to... in the order of $3 million worth of R&D work," said Tanti, pointing to the Foundation's FR-1 concept car (pictured as scale model in clay), which will soon put in a full-size appearance at SEMA in the US.

"If schools wanted to go out and promote careers in the automotive industry to kids, they couldn't do it. They wouldn't be able to spend the kind of resources that have been spent to promote it. So this is a great opportunity to harness this as a way of promoting the skills.

"There's a lot of scope for engineers in this country. There's a high demand for advanced engineering, advanced design skills. There's a skills shortage in that area -- and even if we look at the skills-needs list that's been set up by the Department of Immigration and Trade, people that have an engineering background are a high priority."

When it was put to him that the current shortage could be down to a reliance on skilled workers from overseas, Tanti admits to being unsure.

"I don't really know whether that's it. I think it happens a lot earlier than that. Children aren't really exposed to the right opportunities through education. I'm sure [career advisors are] briefed on what courses are out there, but I don't think there are many that understand what the possibilities could be for their students in the industry.

"They could start off working on the shop floor, but they could end up anywhere."

In this respect, Tanti could be reading from his own autobiography. Beginning his working life in a trade as a panel beater, he has worked in Britain and spent time in a local Rolls-Royce dealership before landing a job in Lindsay Fox's museum, where he stayed for 19 years. After rising to director of the museum, he left to establish the Auto Horizon Foundation. Tanti is what one might call 'self-made' and he says that he started his career "getting lunches, sweeping floors and washing cars." It's his view that engineering has fallen out of favour in this country, partly explaining the shortfall in experienced staff to fill jobs.

"Years ago we were brought up working on billy carts in the backyard and fixing bikes," he says.

"Speak to my mum and she'll tell you that I've been busy since about four years old, pulling things apart. That culture isn't encouraged any more, I don't think. And that's probably part of the problem.

"At a strategic level though, there's an opportunity to teach kids about problem-solving... about challenges in designing and engineering...

"It's early days for us, but [we've got] the right people behind us."

Among them are the panel beater who restored Eric Bana's Falcon after its Targa Tasmania crash and the clay modeller who worked on the Bugatti Veyron interior.

"There's a lot of good people across the industry... There are some really clever Australian people out there -- that nobody knows about."

Very occasionally, a Peter Arcadipane or a Mike Simcoe will be noticed and rise to prominence within the global industry, but as Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson observed on at least two occasions while reviewing the VZ Monaro, Australia is just not renowned as a centre of expertise for vehicle design or engineering.

"They just don't see us that way..." acknowledges Tanti. "'Efijy' was a classic example -- North American concept car of the year and then hot rod of the year as well. Concept car of the year was judged by their peers, so that's a pretty high accolade."

By implication, Tanti hopes that what has been a piecemeal effort by individual car companies in the past to promote the skills available through the local industry will be a more effective effort through the work of the Foundation.

"I don't think [the Foundation] is an indulgence. This is a very serious attempt to promote skills, promote engineering expertise and to promote careers."

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