Are agents too smart for their own good?

A young boy imagines reading minds of his two friends with a homemade science project. They are dressed in casual clothing, glasses and bow ties. They are serious and sitting at a table with helmets on their heads in front of a beige background. Retro styling.

We often feel under-qualified when applying for new roles – but in the travel industry, the opposite could be true.

Thats right, over one in three Aussie travel and tourism workers are over-qualified for their jobs – and have qualifications and training they don’t need.

But so what you say?

Well, over-qualification costs Aussie workers a whopping $4 billion every year nation-wide. That’s a lot of money for training that you don’t need.

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SkillsIQ’s Right Skills. Right Time? Report shows that 2.5 million Australian workers spend time and money on qualifications that are not required for their current role (basically throwing away their hard-earned dollars).

For the uninitiated, SkillsIQ is a national not-for-profit organisation – and is working closely with a number of people-facing sectors, including the tourism industry, to develop clear standards to make sure Aussies have the right skills for their present and future jobs.

The Right Skills. Right Time? Report measures the gap between the required and actual skills (through qualifications) of 10 million Aussie workers across 400 people-facing occupations, including tour guides, event managers and front desk attendants.

SkillsIQ CEO Yasmin King said Aussies in people-facing roles need more practical skills, and are wasting too much time and money on education and tuition fees.

“In more than half of the people-facing sectors we looked at, anywhere between one in three to more than half of the workers had qualifications they didn’t need and which often failed to deliver the necessary practical skills,” she said.

“This over-qualification costs Australians $3.6 billion annually in foregone income due to time spent in unnecessary study and $555 million in superfluous tuition fees – that’s a total cost of $4.1 billion each year.

“Our research shows that it may not always be the best option for younger people to favour a higher qualification over practical work experience early in their working lives. A hotel receptionist doesn’t need an Advanced Diploma of Travel and Tourism management, they need practical VET skills,” King added.

The average employee turnover rate in the Aussie tourism industry was 66 per cent in 2015. Almost 70 per cent of Tourism businesses identified skill deficiencies within their workforce.

Skill deficiencies because they’re over-qualified – but lack practical skills needed to excel in the tourism industry.

Over-qualified staff tend to be more dissatisfied, counter-productive, take more breaks and lack the skills necessary to perform at work.

This can cost tourism business owners time and money to retrain and replace over-qualified team members who leave their jobs (after figuring out they’re over-qualified, obvs).

“Four in five parents want their children to go to university rather than undertake vocational education yet nine out of the ten jobs forecast to have the greatest growth in the next five years can be achieved through training courses provided through vocational and educational training,” King said.

“This isn’t about avoiding higher qualifications – more about making sure you’re getting the right qualifications at the right time in your career. It’s also a question of whether higher qualifications are what will give you the skills and career progression you’re looking for.”

King also said the Right Skills.Right Time? Report is the first step in a conversation about how the travel industry can address the issue of skills mismatch now and in the future.

“The travel and tourism sector must translate clearly defined entry requirements into the form of practical skills to address the sector’s over-qualification trend,” she said.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

over-qualification Right Skills. Right Time? Report SkillsIQ travel industry