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Gartner: Skills Gap is the top emerging risk globally

Announcement posted by CT4 05 Feb 2020

According to a recent Gartner Survey, Emerging risk report and monitor, staff shortages have escalated in the last three months to become the top emerging risk globally. Reskilling and re-entry to the workforce could be the answer to Australia’s skill sh

The survey of 137 senior executives showed that concerns about “talent shortages” now outweigh those around “accelerating privacy regulation” and “cloud computing”, which were the top two risks in the previous Emerging Risk Monitor.

Every year the gap between jobs and a trained digital workforce grows wider. Plans to encourage untapped talent pools to consider a career in IT is growing in momentum globally and Australian IT company CT4 is leading the way, now into its second year of the Digital Apprentice Program (DAP) located in Ballarat, Victoria, is building a skilled talent pool for Australia’s digital future. 

The next tranche of the DAP is open and accepting applications. CT4’s Customer Success Manager Tegan DeClark said the DAP is an excellent way to introduce people into IT and address the global skills gap.

“CT4’s DAP traineeship provides regional Victorians a great opportunity to reskill or upskill to enter a booming industry, and the program to date has been a great success. We’re proud of our most recent cohort who have just completed the initial phase of the program”.  DeClark also strongly encourages women looking for a career change to consider IT as a career path and to join the program.  “We believe that diversity is the lens through which unique problems are solved and we value the different backgrounds and life experience which contributes to our organisation and the industry as a whole.

Upon successfully moving through the first phase of the program, trainees begin to do more specific work on current and new technology with CT4’s DevOps team.  Among this recent group, is Elizabeth Eldridge, who is a mature-aged student, making a career change from a non-IT background and as a result of the program, has a promising future in IT.

Eldridge joined the program in 2019 and said it has given her an advantage with future work opportunities, with a level of exposure to IT which she didn’t have otherwise.  “Women of my age often don’t have much to do with IT.  This program has given me confidence and I’m starting to now understand the background of IT and what technology can do.”

Craig Adams, Group Managing Director said that both the program and the industry at large can be challenging at times but for those successful candidates, opportunities abound with the current digital skills shortage  “CT4 is proud to be a flexible, fast paced, diverse and dynamic workplace with one major criterion for staff to be the best they can be within their role. For trainees who have display a good work ethic, team work and the ability to work in a secure and sensitive IT environment, the rewards are palpable.”

When asked if Eldridge would recommend the program to others, especially women looking for a career change, she wholeheartedly says yes.

“Definitely, I’d say go for it!  It’s been fantastic and I’m glad to have had the opportunity, I’m in it for the learning and to see how far I can go”

Applications for CT4’s 2020 Digital Apprentice are now open to all candidates interested in a paid traineeship in IT.  Go to https://jobs4ballarat.com.au/ and keyword ‘CT4’ for more information