Published on the 23/10/2024 | Written by Heather Wright

Aussie eyes near techers, NZ eyes SFIA…

The Australian Computer Society is urging industry to look to ‘near tech’ workers – those who have similar skills and complete similar tasks to tech workers – to help with the 1.3 million tech workers the country requires by the end of 2030.

The 2024 ACS Digital Pulse, written by Deloitte Access Economics, says while Australia is struggling to find tech workers with the right cybersecurity and AI skills, there are 1.1 million Australian workers who have similar skills and capabilities to technology workers and could be tapped. It notes that ‘reskillers’ already account for more than half of incoming talent into the technology workforce – with that workforce topping now one million for the first time.

“Reskillers are a crucial pipeline of potential tech talent.”

It’s calling for workers to be motivated to reskill through paid incentives and connections with education providers.

“Reskillers are a crucial pipeline of potential tech talent,” Digital Pulse says.

The 1.1 million includes mathematicians, electronic engineers and marketing professionals, where Digital Pulse says over half of tasks completed each day are similar to those completed by tech workers every day.

Based on current trends, 26,000 workers will need to be reskilled into technology each year for the remainder of the decade, to help make up the 52,000 new workers required yearly by current business demand.

“Yet the share of professional workers who are considering a move into tech has fallen in the past two years, with lack of digital skills being cited as the main barrier to making the transition.”

Enrolments in IT studies were down 10 percent in 2022, and while 70 percent of all parents would encourage their children to pursue a career in technology, only half of those outside tech roles or professional services would do so.

At the same time, changes to Australia’s skilled migration intake and forthcoming cuts to international student numbers, could further reduce the tech talent pool.

The report notes ‘critical’ shortages in cybersecurity, with demand for cyber security skills increasing 80 percent in Australia since 2020, keeping pace with the 60 percent increase in cybercrime during the same period.

ACS says the report is an ‘urgent call to action’ to unlock Australia’s technology workforce and catalyse future growth in the digital economy.

Josh Griggs, ACS chief executive, says Australia has long faced a chronic tech skills shortage, ‘but this report makes it clear that in the face of a rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape and strong adoption of AI into the workplace, we need to be ensuring the nation has the skills needed by industry and the community’.

“For Australia to be competitive globally, we need to ensure the nation has the skillsets required to make the most from these emerging platforms,” he says.

Tech jobs are well paid and tech companies are among the fastest growing businesses, he notes.

Among the 12 recommendations in the report, now in its tenth year, is a call to reduce barriers to reskilling by paying workers a $24,000 wage subsidy to gain tech skills while working, with the onus shared between business and government.

An increase in the number of paid work placements for IT students, and skills certification for migrants, are also recommended.

Engaging the next generation through parent information campaigns and mentoring schemes, and an increased focus on increasing diversity through more support for women-led tech startups, increased digital inclusion in regional areas and a commitment to best practice among tech employers to remove unconscious bias from hiring and promotion decisions are also recommended.

The report also puts the focus on AI, saying the country is falling behind others in adoption of the technology and advocating for industry association led training programs, supported by Jobs and Skills Australia; and the identification and implementation of AI skills into the curriculum for relevant tertiary training programs. Businesses also need to address skills gaps in their own workforces, it says.

Digital skills are also in the spotlight in New Zealand, with NZTech heralding the latest version of the Skills Framework for the Information Age, due on October 30.

New Zealand joined Australia in agreeing on a whole country license for using the SFIA, which is a global framework describing the skills and competencies professionals need in ICT, software engineering and digital transformation, in 2022.

The framework clearly describes the skills and competencies needed by IT and digital transformation professionals across a number of levels of responsibility, providing a way for organisations and individuals to assess skills and competencies, measure current capability and plan for future demand.

Graeme Muller, NZTech chief executive, says having a framework to clearly define and develop skills is crucial.

“SFIA 9 will help organisations in New Zealand equip their workforce with capabilities needed for our future.”

The role of frameworks like SFIA was highlighted in NZTech’s 2023 Digital Skills Report, which recommended the rapid deployment of the SFIA framework to enable alignment.

“Further adoption of the SFIA could aid the move towards a skills-based approach by providing a consistent common language for the skills needed for ICT-related roles,” the report said, while noting that just 25 percent of survey respondents were using a digital skills capability framework within their organisation.

“Increased update of the SFIA across the digital technology ecosystem (including tech firms, public sector agencies, tech teams in non-tech businesses and recruiters) will help instill consistency for how digital skills are described, named and quantified.

“In addition, the SFIA can enable skills-based hiring decisions, help cross-functional teams communicate and collaborate more effectively, and enable employees to quantify their skills in a purposeful way.”

SFIA 9 includes an AI skills framework covering AI and data literacy, building AI/machine learning (ML) models, developing and operationalising AI/ML applications and ML ops.

Support for entry level roles and updates for a wide range of professional skills, including cyber security, are also among the changes.

SFIA was also a component within the now defunct Digital Technologies Industry Transformation Plan’s skills pipeline workstream.

A 2degrees survey earlier this year found that 23 percent of businesses said they lack the digital skills needed to get ahead, up from 19 percent last year. On top of that 22 percent cited the lack of highly skilled people as the biggest barrier to driving increased productivity.