Author: Lumination
Date: 29th Jul 2022
Australia’s richest resource is its people. We need them to have accessible pathways to skills, reskilling and upskilling opportunities. This becomes even more prevalent when it comes to digital and technology skills.
Digital competitiveness on the decline
A recent report highlights a disturbing trend; Australia’s digital competitiveness is in decline, dropping five places in a ranking of 64 countries.
Australia has dropped to 20th in the Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Digital Competitiveness Ranking (WDCR). The third year in a row Australia has fallen in the rankings, only Poland and Bulgaria record bigger falls.
The report, as reviewed by Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), highlights key weaknesses across the country, including business agility, digital skills and retraining: “Leading nations in this year’s results were characterised by strong performance in the categories of talent and training and education.”
Some good news
There is still lots to be optimistic about when it comes to technology. The technology sector contributes an annual contribution of an estimated $167 billion to the Australian Economy with approximately 861,000 Australians employed in tech jobs.
The Tech Council of Australia is leading the call via their Digital Employment Forum; Our roadmap to create a thriving Australian tech workforce. The Australian Government and the Australian tech sector have a shared commitment to achieve 1.2 million tech jobs in Australia by 2030. This is critical to help improve Australia’s living standards and create economic opportunity.
While Australia is on track to create these jobs, filling them will be a challenge. Under a business as usual scenario, where Australia does not make policy changes, the goal for 1.2 million will fall short by 186,000 people. This means Australians will miss out on highly paid, flexible and stable jobs while the economy loses productivity gains from deeper technological transformation.
Growth in talent pipelines comes from access to new entrants, reskilling and skilled migration, but the barriers to seizing tech job opportunities are fivefold. These barriers include:
- a lack of awareness around what tech jobs exist,
- inadequate training and pathways,
- underrepresentation of women, older Australians and regional Australians,
- small talent pools of highly technical people, and
- a lack of coordinated effort, analysis and planning for the future tech workforce.
Australia is not keeping pace with the rest of the world. If the country is to turn the tide on its falling digital competitiveness, then talent, training and education must be at the forefront.
Paving a path ahead, and fast
At Lumination, we see the benefits of technology being embedded into education and training every single day. Our technology enables interactive learning, with a PwC study showing virtual reality learners being four times faster to train than in the classroom and 275% more confident to apply skills learned after training.
We are passionate about technology opportunities and work with educational and industry leaders eager to improve learning outcomes and upskill employees. Through emerging immersive technologies such as AI (Artificial Intelligence), VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality), we enhance the learning experience, enabling users to develop the skills necessary for today’s workforce and the workforce of the future. Users learn faster, retain more, make fewer mistakes and feel more confident executing tasks, improving student outcomes in education and saving employers and organisations time and money.
We also believe that Adelaide and South Australia can help Australia thrive on the global stage by putting people and technology at the forefront of a growth agenda.
The technology sector can only be the engine room for a prosperous future by:
- creating ambitious tech sector jobs targets,
- plugging skill gaps, and
- preparing students for the future.
Our first event in our Lumination Insight Series, Australia’s Engine Room: Using Tech to Thrive in Uncertain Times on 19 August will bring together industry, government and educational leaders to discuss how we can make these pathways a reality.
Thought leaders Dr Eva Balan-Vnuk, Executive Director, Chief Information Officer at Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Government of South Australia, Kate Jones, Executive Director at Technology Council of Australia, and Dr Marissa Bond, Head of Technology, Lumination will discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead for using technology to help SA and the country thrive in uncertain times.
This is an invitation only event — contact us for more information and to secure a spot.