057/06
21 June 2006

Building Australian ICT skills

The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, today released the ICT Skills Foresighting Working Group’s report, Building Australian ICT Skills.

The Working Group is part of the Government’s strategic approach to ensuring we can identify the skills needs of the ICT industry and provide that information to ICT professionals and students looking for opportunities.

“There is an urgent need to address the negative perception of ICT careers in the community as it is turning many young people away from considering a career in this dynamic sector,” Senator Coonan said. “The report will make a significant contribution to understanding the changing needs of the ICT industry and the economy as a whole.”

The ICT Skills Foresighting Working Group and the 2005 partICipaTion Summit (aimed at encouraging more women and young people into IT) highlighted the lack of public access to data about the ICT skills labour market, largely due to the poor dissemination of the quality data already available.

“The increasing role of ICT in economic activity is critical to achieving our national goals such as economic growth, national security, dealing with demographic change, environmental management and education and health,” Senator Coonan said.

“Building and maintaining a sustainable and world-class ICT workforce and ICT skills base is necessary to meet the current and future needs of the economy and ensure that Australia continues to achieve strong productivity growth as well as the broader economic and social benefits from ICT.

The report notes that the Information Technology Contract and Recruitment Association (ITCRA), in conjunction with Multimedia Victoria, has established an internet based data collection of IT placements with data supplied by 32 of its members. The data is currently published for Victoria only.

The Australian Government will fund the creation of an open-access National ICT Skills Tracking and Monitoring System based on the ITCRA model. Any information collected will also be presented on the Skills Australia website.

“I am pleased to announce that ITCRA has been successful in its application for funding under the Information Technology Online (ITOL) Program. The National ICT Skills Monitoring Establishment Project will improve ITCRA’s current data collection and dissemination processes.”

The Working Group’s report is available at www.dcita.gov.au/building_ICT_skills