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According to Penny Wong, Australia's Finance Minister, Australia needs an increase in skilled immigration to meet demand for skilled labor.
"We need to increase the labor force," Wong said. "We're facing a whole range of capacity constraints we need to deal with now."
As Australia's economy grows, the nation of 22 million must increase its population to meet demands for labor in high-growth industries such as mining and finance.
The skilled immigration cap announced by the UK Government on 23 November 2010 is already coming under fire. The permanent skilled immigration cap will reduce the number of Tier 1 (General) visas, so called "highly skilled" visas, from 13,000 a year to 1,000 when it is implemented in April 2011.
Today's announcement by UK Home Secretary Theresa May means that the Tier 1 (General) visa previously known as the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme will in effect be abolished.
The UK Government has announced a permanent cap of 21,700 on skilled immigration to take effect in April of 2011. Moreover, Tier 1 will be restricted to entrepreneurs, investors and 'exceptionally talented' individuals and Tier 2 will be restricted to graduate level occupations.
Australian education groups are optimistic that the government will help fix Australia's ailing education industry.
Educators traveled to Canberra on 22 November to meet with Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, Trade Minister Craig Emerson, and the coalition government's universities spokesman, Brett Mason to lobby for changes that will support the education sector.
Germany should step up its efforts to encourage more foreign students to study in Germany to help the Country to deal with rising skills shortages, says the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Germany's economy is growing again after the global financial crisis of 2007. German companies are now looking to recruit more skilled labour. The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce estimates that Germany requires at least an additional 400,000 skilled workers.