Australia's National Science and Mathematics Education and Industry advisor Roslyn Prinsley outlined the problem Australia was facing.

"The fact that the demand in Australia for maths graduates, at the minute, is outstripping supply is a major issue for this country," she said.

"From 1998 to 2005, the demand for mathematicians increased by 52 per cent.

"From 2001 to 2007, the number of enrolments in a mathematics major in Australian universities declined by 15 per cent.

"We need to graduate 20,000 per year to meet national requirements but we are only graduating 9000 per year."

Subsea 7 Human Resources adviser Paul Joyce told EnergyNews this was a problem for the future of the Australian oil and gas industry.

"Having a shortage of engineers is going to have a real knock-on effect for the whole industry," he said.

"It's really interesting because when we [go to] careers fairs we see nothing but enthusiastic engineers who want to get on board and start doing the work."

Joyce said the problems were not just on the Australian front.

"Australia isn't the only place in the world that is going through a shortage of engineers, being a global company this is something we are struggling with throughout the world," he said.

Oilcareers managing director Mark Guest told EnergyNews that with 100 years of hydrocarbons, it was essential Australia built a future labour force.

"We need to show [young people] that oil and gas is a career," he said.

Guest said it was important for oil companies and the industry to take the lead and reach young people in the early stages of education.

He also said some of the onus fell on individual schools and the government.

"The oil companies and the industry bodies need to work at school level," Guest said.

"To go into those fields they need to be doing maths and sciences at school before they go to university.

"We have to start getting that message right down to the younger people. We need to be talking to them when they're ten and eleven."

Guest predicted a future for Australia which placed it as a hub for the oil and gas industry comparable to Houston or Aberdeen.

He warned, however, if Australia did not build the expertise now this would not happen.

"Here in Australia, if you start training them up now they will also be the skills that you can export as a hub," Guest said.

"If you look at Aberdeen and Houston, the jobs in these cities are providing for projects in other countries.

"Australia has the opportunities. It needs the skills now."

Guest highlighted the fact that reform was not possible without government assistance.

"Government needs to have a very positive attitude towards the industry and it needs to be putting across messages - the good bits of the industry, the health and safety innovations, the amount that is invested in technology," he said.

The Gonski review released in February 2012 outlined the divisive nature of the education system and sketched out changes to bridge the gap between different education levels across public and private schooling.

One of the changes involved public schools looking to private funding to improve resources.

University of Western Australia Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics dean John Dell said the Gonski review could have a positive impact on the number of engineers in the future.

He said it would do this by "giving more importance to the career of being a primary school teacher or a high school teacher".

"It's a real issue around having talented teachers in high schools and more importantly in primary schools.

"One of the problems we have in high schools is that there's hardly anybody teaching mathematics that has actually done a mathematics degree."

He said UWA, along with engineering faculties from all of the other major universities, were doing all they could to keep numbers up.

Guest said the main problem was the level of commitment needed to study in the field.

"Unfortunately, maths and science is hard work and its hard work at school level. There are only a limited number of university places, so you've got to study hard to get in there," he said.

His best advice on boosting numbers: tell students about the money that can be made in the industry.