Growing New Business Opportunities
18 June 2005
The business environment of the Sunshine Coast has never been
off the University agenda from the earliest days of planning. The
obvious reasons are that we are concerned with supporting
sustainable businesses, we are committed to getting as many
graduates into jobs as possible, we are conscious of the emergence
of new knowledge economy jobs that the University can help provide,
and we want students to believe in themselves as potential
employers and not be solely dependent on current businesses to
employ them.
Some of the difficulties of the local business environment
remain as problematic now, as they were in 1994/5, with the
proliferation of very small businesses and the almost total absence
of very large corporations being one. Others include the
under-employment and casualisation of a workforce still heavily
reliant on a certain type of tourism, and the building
industry.
It is an environment into which some of our most gifted
graduates are, for various reasons, not attracted. Some leave the
Coast because career opportunities are too limited. There remains
too great a reluctance on the part of some small employers, to
recruit graduates who could make a significant difference to their
firm's profitability. There are hundreds of success stories where
employers have taken the plunge and employed graduates, or even
'tested the water' by providing work experience opportunities to
students whilst studying.
Whilst there is no much wider acceptance of the future
importance of the new economy, there is still too little evidence
of its emergence on the Coast on the scale needed to create new
jobs to match population growth.
The University's commitment to the incubator-accelerator-science
and technology park is being pursued with some success. The
announcement of the co-location of hospitals will boost employment
opportunities and careers in health, especially if the
University-hospital link is planned and symbiotic from the outset.
Any separation of University and hospitals will reduce the impact
of both sectors to generate the kinds of jobs needed in Maroochy
and across the Coast. World-wide major organisations like
technology parks, hospitals and sports centres are demonstrably
more effective when they are co-located, mutually supportive for
research and development, and can progress together.
Last week, there was also one of the most impressive examples
that I have witnessed of the local small business community
embracing the new economy on the Coast. The occasion was the
launching of the 'Surprisingly Smart' book produced by the CEO of
the Innovation Centre, at which Karen Woolley spoke. She talked
about the promise of the high-tech, small business activity of the
Sunshine Coast and she epitomised the emerging, world-class,
entrepreneurial leader in the new Coast economy.
If the University, with major emerging organisations like
hospitals, and existing and future small business leaders like
Karen, can together with Maroochy Shire Council and SunROC, work
together on our job generating future, there is no doubt that the
Sunshine Coast will indeed become the region that can stand on its
own, and not be reliant on Brisbane to provide the best careers.
Already the University, in a variety of ways, is contributing to
the Maroochy and SunROC regional economy beyond every expectation
of ten or eleven years ago. This University has provided Maroochy
in particular, with a different kind of future. Further
collaboration and mutual support will further enhance the business
environment and job opportunities for everyone.
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of University of
the Sunshine Coast