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ICT Geelong relaunched with new skills and advocacy charter for the region

Announcement posted by Infotech Marketing & Communications Pty Ltd 03 Oct 2018

To address regional IT skills shortage

Industry group ICT Geelong has been relaunched following a series of meetings of the region’s tech community, despite the end of the State Government’s Skilling the Bay funding program.

ICT Geelong chairman Jason Steinwedel said “feedback from a very successful series of meetups and allied events has helped redefine our charter.”

Those events were convened by Stephanie Beitzel whose contract as CEO finished with the end of the funding program.

“Much of what we see as our new charter emerged from the work undertaken by Stephanie Beitzel in convening events and in engaging with individual technical professionals. We are indebted to her for this feedback and contribution to our future,” Mr Steinwedel said.

“This feedback, combined with the industrial and commercial growth in the Geelong region in the past two to three years, has redefined what ICT Geelong must do to become recognised as the region’s peak body for information and communications technology.”

ICT Geelong estimates the region will need to fill more than 750 IT positions over the next five years, an increase of about 10 percent annually over the current IT staff numbers.

Until now ICT Geelong has been focused on meeting State Government funding requirements for the delivery of innovation with a startup culture in mind.

“We are now committed to a change in direction to identify shortages in ICT skills in the region and to develop those skills,”Mr Steinwedel explains.

“Additionally we are expanding our role to industry and commerce by identifying opportunities and assisting in the implementation of information technologies for economic growth. This will see ICT Geelong becoming a forum for the region’s CIOs representing commerce, manufacturing, education, health and local government.”

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