Australia is entering a period of forecast skills shortages in defence industry. The growth in demand for new complex defence systems, stimulated by Federal Government spending, has highlighted the need for additional systems engineers and systems integration specialists. At the same time, the size of many companies in the Australian defence industry mitigates against strategic investment in programs to address their skills needs. This situation is compounded by strong growth in Australia's resources sector, fuelled by high prices for minerals, and the consequent competition for the same engineering professionals. This impacts on Australia's capacity to achieve self-reliance in defence capability. Concurrent to this skills shortage, however, is a widespread recognition by all levels of government that action needs to be taken. The Skilling Australia's Defence Industry (SADI) initiative will inject approximately A$200 million over the next 10 years into programs to address the skills shortage. The initiative, run by Australia's Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO), has already allocated significant funding to companies that are engaging in new activities to address their skills requirements. This paper describes one such activity - the creation of a new Masters degree in Military Systems Integration.
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