To help address Australia’s current and future workforce challenges in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), the Prime Minister’s National Science and Technology Council identified the need for a detailed analysis of STEM Career Pathways.

This report was commissioned by the Office of the Chief Scientist in February 2023 to inform the council’s deliberations and its advice to Government. The central research question asked was:

What are the barriers to STEM career pathways that need to be addressed, and solutions to enable opportunities for all Australians and to develop our STEM workforce for the future?

The task was to identify issues that currently limit STEM career opportunities – along with an assessment of options to address those issues in line with international best practice.

The report’s focus is on retention in STEM careers and enabling a wide range of career pathways and career movement across the sector. This includes the visibility of the breadth of STEM careers.

Key findings:

• Job insecurity is a barrier to retention in STEM careers, particularly in Australia’s STEM research sector.
• Even among PhD graduates who have been in the workforce for 15 years or more, 25% were on fixed-term contracts.
• Short-term research funding and job insecurity damages workplace culture and job satisfaction.
• Women are less likely to have permanent full-time work, and more likely to be on fixed-term contracts.
• 78% of men who responded to the survey were on permanent full-time contracts; the figure for women was just 58%.