Asia Education Foundation

Asia skills fast facts

Some fast facts about work and life opportunities available to those who have Asia skills:

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‘To be successful in your life, you have to accommodate for people’s backgrounds, beliefs and different ways of life, and studying Asian languages or cultures will assist you.’

– Maha Sukkar, Police Officer

 

How many Australians are living and working in Asian countries?

We don’t know exactly, but one recent careful estimate suggests that about 150,000 Australians are living and working long term in 25 Asian countries. This number has risen by more than 50 percent in the last ten years.

In 2009 long-term departures from Australia were recorded to 22 different Asian countries, the most common destinations being China and its special administrative region Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, Vietnam and Singapore. With the addition of Indonesia, those countries were the most popular destinations for shorter stays as well.

What sorts of Australians live and work in Asian countries?

The group is large and ranges across occupations as diverse as high level company executives, scientific and academic researchers, teachers and nurses, volunteer workers and fruit pickers. But most long-term Australian resident departures are professionals, para-professionals, managers or administrators. They tend to be younger, more highly skilled and more highly educated than the Australian workforce as a whole.

Why do they choose to work overseas?

The top two reasons given in a recent survey were: better employment opportunities and better chances for professional development. More income was third, and about the same number of people said better chances for career advancement and an interesting lifestyle.

What sorts of work opportunities are there in Asia?

There is an extremely wide range of jobs available in the Asian countries where Australians are mainly working at present, the most commonly available jobs are in these fields:

  • sales, customer service and business development
  • various types of engineering
  • administration and human resource management
  • accounting and other financial services
  • information technology – hardware and software development, network administration and technical support
  • marketing and public relations.

Kate Bin-Toyim

 

‘Having a focus on Asia and a knowledge and an interest in Asia have been a huge advantage in my career. It has enabled me to become involved in projects that are quite unique and has really opened up pathways into different areas of my work that wouldn’t have been accessible if I didn’t have that particular focus.’

– Kate Ben-Tovim, Arts Producer 

Why do they choose to work overseas?

In many Asian countries there are often job advertisements for ‘fresh graduates’, young people with recent qualifications and no work experience. In such casesbilingualism is often a significant asset.

Among Asian countries, companies from Korea, China, Singapore, Switzerland, Malaysia and Hong Kong have recorded the fastest growth of direct foreign investment in Australia during the last three years. Japanese companies already have a substantial level of investment in Australia. That means that companies like Sony, Honda, Samsung, Hyundai, Daewoo, MobileOne, Singtel, Hutchison Whampoa, Fujitsu and LG will be joined by others in looking for Australian employees.

What sorts of jobs are available in Asia?

The main interests of Asian companies currently operating and investing in Australia are in the automobile industry, domestic goods, technology, telecommunications, banking and finance and the resources sector. These industries offer a wide range of employment including:

  • sales, customer service and business development
  • marketing and public relations
  • administration and human resource management
  • accounting and other financial services
  • information technology: hardware and software development, network administration and technical support
  • engineering and technical support.

What sorts of jobs are available at home?

Dr Kate ArmstrongIn recent times people from China and India have been the biggest national groups of immigrants to Australia after people from the UK and New Zealand. Australia now has more than 1.8 million people in its population who were born in Asian countries. This process has enriched our country in many ways.

People with at least of the some of the Asia skills mentioned here (country knowledge, language skills, cross cultural skills) have a distinct advantage in working with and for these communities which are an important part of Australia’s economic and social makeup.

There is a certain amount of work in support and advocacy roles for Asian communities as they adjust to Australian society and become established members of the larger community. Social workers, teachers, community support workers, youth sport and recreation officers, translators, legal aid workers and others working in mainly Asian–Australian communities need these skills. Cross cultural understanding is a crucial attribute for roles like these.

In addition however, history says that the new groups prefer to do business with people who they can communicate effectively with and trust. Effective communication will come from the right sort of language skills; the trust is likely to come from cultural understanding. People with these skills will be at an advantage as these growing communities become economically and socially established.

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