$6.5M boost for ICT education with launch of national Digital Careers program

Media Release

12 June 2013

$6.5M boost for ICT education through launch of national

Digital Careers program

Australia’s economic future looks brighter today with the launch of a national educational program to make careers in information and communications technology (ICT) more appealing to primary and secondary school students. Funded with more than $6M from the Australian Government - with matching contributions to come from industry, universities and state governments - the program is a response to the worrying shortage of high school students choosing to study ICT-related courses in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This has led to a shortage of skilled ICT workers capable of doing the jobs required to build and sustain an advanced digital economy. NICTA will co-ordinate this initiative – the Digital Careers program.

A number of factors, including widespread perceptions by students and their parents that ICT careers are insecure, poorly remunerated or boring, have driven tertiary enrolments in ICT courses down by over 50 percent. In 2010, the most recent year for which there is verifiable national data, 4,300 Australians obtained tertiary qualifications in ICT, down from 9,093 in 2003.¹ Advanced software developers, software engineers and data scientists are in particularly short supply.

In Brisbane today, Senator Stephen Conroy, the Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, announced the Digital Careers program to address this shortfall by bringing together NICTA, the Australian Information Industries Association (AIIA), the Australian Computer Society (ACS), Australian Council of Deans of ICT (ACDICT), Federal and State Governments, universities and industry participants to collectively support and deliver a national package of education and careers projects.

“Collaboration is the key to this project and NICTA is delighted to co-ordinate this initiative by Government, universities and industry to bring young Australians into exciting careers in ICT. I encourage anyone who wants to make a real contribution to Australia’s economy and build a creative, dynamic, and lasting career for themselves to consider a tertiary qualification in ICT,” said Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, CEO, NICTA.

Professor Ian Chubb, Australia’s Chief Scientist, said: "The Health of Australian Science report we published last year, while giving Australian science an overall positive bill of health, found critical vulnerabilities. For instance in 2002, about 22 percent of graduates from Australian universities were in science, technology engineering and mathematics-related degrees. In the same year, 52 percent of graduates in China were from these areas. By 2010, Australian STEM graduate numbers had dropped to 18 percent of the total. The downstream effect on innovation in Australia will be significant unless we reverse this trend."

Simon Kaplan, NICTA’s Director of Skills and Industry Transformation, explains that activities which are already successful, such as First Lego League, Robocup, the EXITE camps for girls in technology and the Young ICT Explorers program, will be scaled up so they can reach more students. These and other outreach activities in the program will help students, parents and teachers understand the pervasiveness of ICT across all industry sectors and raise awareness of opportunities for ICT-driven innovation and entrepreneurship.

The national Digital Careers program builds on the successful “Group X” pilot, which Professor Kaplan has led in Queensland since 2007 and which has contributed to a 50 percent increase in ICT enrolments in that state. Professor Kaplan will lead the national program. “If Australia fails to establish a critical mass of imaginative, creative, digitally-literate graduates, we will never be internationally competitive. There is no reason that we shouldn’t have a vibrant, entrepreneurial digitally-enabled economy. We need to take the many successful educational programs that have been rolled out on a small scale around Australia, and amplify them. This project is about consortium partners working together to share best practice to dramatically increase ICT enrolments.”

The Digital Careers program is a hands-on collaboration where leaders from universities, TAFEs and industry will lead exciting and engaging ICT-focused activities around the country, and talk about the many exciting and lucrative places an ICT career can lead, including the creative industries, software development, start-ups and a range of roles transforming major industry sectors.

“To digitally transform ourselves as a nation, we need to foster the brightest minds into studying technical subjects. We also need to encourage more girls – half of the talent pool – to launch their ICT careers if we are to have the skills needed to compete globally,” said Andrew Stevens, Deputy Chairman, AIIA. “I’m excited by the prospect that Australia’s next generation of technology leaders may be found through this innovative program.”

"As the professional body for the ICT workforce, the Australian Computer Society (ACS) is strongly supportive of this initiative and applauds the Federal Government for its support for this national education program." said Alan Patterson, CEO of the ACS.  "The current shortage of skilled ICT professionals is a critical issue for Australia and our future growth prospects. Inspiring and motivating school children to pursue a career in ICT goes to the heart of ensuring we have the skills in the future to take full advantage of the digital age."

¹ From the Australian Computer Society’s Statistical Compendium 2012. http://www.acs.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/13541/2012_Statcompendium_final_web.pdf

About NICTA

NICTA (National ICT Australia Ltd) is Australia’s Information and Communications Technology Research Centre of Excellence. NICTA develops technologies that generate economic, social and environmental benefits for Australia. NICTA collaborates with industry on joint projects, creates new companies, and provides new talent to the ICT sector through a NICTA-enhanced PhD program. With five laboratories around Australia and over 700 people, NICTA is the largest organisation in Australia dedicated to ICT research.

NICTA is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and the Australian Research Council through the ICT Centre of Excellence Program. NICTA is also funded and supported by the Australian Capital Territory, the New South Wales, Queensland and Victorian Governments, the Australian National University, the University of New South Wales, the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland, the University of Sydney, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology and Monash University.

For further information:

Dorothy Kennedy

Communications Specialist, NICTA

Ph: 02 9376 2098 or 0488 229 687