IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The Digital Careers initiative is aimed at addressing an acute shortage of secondary school students choosing to study ICT, including related courses such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem), program coordinator National ICT Australia said.

Freelancer.com founder Matt Barrie has in the past highlighted the urgent need to increase the number of students studying ICT.

The funding is part of the Digital Careers program.

“Our children are digital natives. ICT is shaping every aspect of their lives – the way they connect, learn and play,” Minister for Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, said.

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.

Nudging Australian students toward ICT careers is a major goal of a new partnership between the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and the Australian Council of Deans of Information and Communications Technology (ACDICT).

The partnership aims to connect ICT educators with industry leaders to better attract and engage students to the profession. It “sets forth terms for an ongoing cooperative and collaborative partnership based on a joint interest to identify Australia’s workforce development needs and to deliver benefits to ICT higher education,” ACS said.

The ceo of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), Ian Birks told iTWire; “There’s not an awful lot in this budget for our industry.” However he acknowledged that there could be some programmes in other sectors which would have a residual flow on effect for ICT companies given the foundation role that information systems play in all modern businesses.

He nevertheless believed the 2011-12 Budget delivered a “solid platform” particularly in terms of continued support for the National Broadband Network and e-health initiatives.

The Coalition says it will trial an opt-in pigeonhole from 2014, which will be a free, secure digital inbox that can be used as a standalone “mailbox” or be combined with another email address for communication from all levels of government.

The Coalition has proposed a new structure where ultimate authority for “effective whole-of-government ICT decisions” would rest with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

If elected this weekend, the Coalition said it would make the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) a support agency for a new Australian Government ICT Advisory Board.

Communications minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, has revealed that a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) and his department.

The MoU between the AIIA and the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy was announced yesterday by Conroy at an AIIA sponsored event — "NBN, Cloud and the Digital Economy" in Sydney.

The digital industry is worth over $100 billion to Australia’s economy and ICT expertise is in high demand in the job market, but a paper submitted by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) states that enrolment in undergrad ICT (information and communication technology) degrees and vocational training programs are both down.

The paper, titled ACARA Draft Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Technologies, found that over the past decade, ICT uni degrees had seen a 50 per cent drop in enrolment and vocational programs had experienced a 40 per cent decline.

The Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency released its ICT workforce study 2013 on Tuesday, revealing a determined effort would be needed to develop the IT skills needed to fill the gaps.

It found the nation's total ICT workforce would grow 7.1% between now and 2016-17, but the expansion was "threatened by a projected shortage of skilled people".

The Department of Defence’s research and development organisation will separate its corporate and research ICT systems in a bid to improve collaboration.

In a five-year strategy released last week, the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) flagged plans to move its corporate applications to the Defence Restricted Network.

With the federal election coming in September, the Australian Computer Society (ACS) is continuing to push for national curriculum reform, saying that there needs to be more support for teachers in ICT and efforts to promote tertiary study of technology among high school students.

The Federal Government will move to improve operational efficiency, services and stakeholder engagement under a three-year ICT strategy, released today.

The 40-page document was first aired as a broader "draft ICT Strategic Vision" 18 months ago and released after a secretly commissioned inquiry into the Australian Government Information Management Office's (AGIMO) capacity to implement a whole-of-government strategy.

These developments are also referred to as the Internet of Things, of which the digital economy will play a key role.

The program will be co-ordinated by National ICT Australia (NICTA) and is supported by the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and the Australian Council of Deans of ICT (ACDICT).

Dubbed as INSPIRE, the centre will facilitate research and promote ICT use among pre-service and practicing teachers.

It has received $2 million from the ACT Government and $5 million from the federal government.

According to the ACT Government, this research will in turn inform the design of professional learning for pre-service teachers at UC, as well as teachers across ACT public schools.

A council of 38 ICT heads of school questioned recent Federal Government initiatives to improve teaching quality in primary and secondary schools.

Last month, the Government unveiled a three-year, $12.4 million program for universities to train school teachers in a range of mathematics and science subjects.

In March communications minister Stephen Conroy and prime minster, Julia Gillard, chose a retail store in Perth to announce that they would release, at the end of May, a National Digital Economy Strategy.

They promised that: "The National Digital Economy Strategy will provide the framework that will enable industry and business to build on and take full advantage of this world class infrastructure [the NBN]."

Ms Gillard told a forum on the digital economy that the nation had to work out how to exploit the opportunities to come with investment in information and communication technology (ICT).

"The commodity most precious in the 21st century, more valuable even than iron ore, is knowledge," Ms Gillard told the forum attended by 40 industry representatives in Sydney on Friday.

When the Coalition Government took power in Queensland in mid-2012, it promised a wide-ranging, $5 million, six-month audit of the State’s IT projects.

The Government’s long-promised response to that audit – which had been scheduled for release in November 2012 – has never been made public.