Category: Skills

May 1, 2025

Tech roles surge 55% in digitisation decade

The last decade has seen rapid growth of the tech workforce as organisations digitally transformed, with the number of these workers increasing 55 per cent, according to new analysis from KPMG. Since 2014, the number of tech and IT professionals, including programmers, systems administrators, and security specialists, has increased by 176,400. It puts the tech…

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April 28, 2025

$40m pledge for ‘new energy tradie’ skills centre

A returned Albanese government will co-fund a $40 million national training centre in Melbourne to reskill thousands of plumbers and gas fitters for the changing energy system. Federal Labor on Monday committed half the funding for the National Training Centre in New Energy Skills, planned for west Melbourne. The Allen state government and the union backed…

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April 16, 2025

‘Connect the dots’: ACS pushes joined-up approach to innovation

The Australian Computer Society has urged the next federal government to take a “unified, national approach” towards reforming digital skills and research commercialisation, warning that the country’s future prosperity is at stake without action. In its election position paper, the country’s largest professional association for technology workers has put forward a national blueprint recommending a…

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April 14, 2025

Skills drive: Tonsley Technical College signs new industry partners

Tonsley Technical College, one of South Australia’s five new technical colleges, has unveiled three additional employer partnerships to support career development opportunities within the advanced manufacturing and engineering. The employer partnerships include SARAH construction, which is also building the new college, advanced electronics manufacturer REDARC and the Climate Impact Corporation, a leader in the…

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March 18, 2025

Women in tech an untapped $6.5bn opportunity

More than 660,000 women could reskill into tech carers within months, according to new modelling that puts the economic windfall of a more diverse Australian tech sector at $6.5 billion. A mass career shift has been flagged as one of the most practical ways to meet the estimated need for 1.3 million tech workers by…

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March 17, 2025

‘Not just a moral imperative’: STEM change must be above politics

The chair of a landmark review into STEM diversity says the recommendations are a crucial leaver for economic growth and should be beyond politics, as the federal Coalition waits to back the review’s findings. Sally-Ann Williams, the Cicada Innovations chief executive who led the Pathway to Diversity in STEM Review, made the comments while pushing…

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March 10, 2025

Canberra’s ageing tech workforce in the government’s sights

An ageing tech workforce and the absence of succession planning in the Australian Public Service is putting business continuity at “great risk”, according to the federal government’s first digital workforce plan. The report, developed as a “call to action” to uplift digital capability, shows one in five tech workers are nearing retirement age and this…

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March 10, 2025

Gender bias holding back Australia’s ICT Sector

Australia’s tech workforce is growing at twice the national average. Tech exports have doubled in the past decade, making the sector one of Australia’s fastest-growing economic drivers — but there’s a disconnect. Demand for tech workers has never been higher, and the talent is out there, yet outdated hiring practices and biases are keeping them…

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March 4, 2025

‘Transformative’: FemTech talent project bags $4.9m grant

Hundreds of women will be trained and mentored as part of a new government-funded skills program designed to help tear down the barriers to entering and advancing in Australia’s $167 billion technology sector. Amid the ongoing tech skills shortage, the FemTech project will see vocational education and training, as well as other professional development, offered…

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February 24, 2025

Engineers Australia launches ‘Chartered’ cyber credentials

Engineers Australia has launched a new cyber engineering ‘Area of Practice’ that opens a pathway for security professionals to achieve ‘Chartered’ status in Cyber Engineering for the first time. The Cyber Engineering Area of Practice (AoP) is a recognition of the recognition of the growing prominence of digital technology in everyday life and the demand…

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February 13, 2025

ACS booked a $7m loss last year – its first in a decade

The Australian Computer Society reported an almost $7 million loss last financial year, marking its first deficit in more than a decade and forcing the organisation to eat into members funds. The country’s largest professional association for technology workers booked the $6.7 million deficit despite clocking revenue of $49.1 million – a figure that has…

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February 4, 2025

Vic STEM ‘crisis’ needs education overhaul, scientists warn

An education “crisis” means Victoria won’t have enough high skilled workers to deliver a knowledge-based economy, STEM groups are warning as the Allan government weighs changes to the state curriculum. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) groups are pressing the government, state opposition and the Greens to elevate the fields in the Victorian curriculum and provide…

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January 31, 2025

Gig Guide: Assistant Treasurer to leave parliament

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones will not recontest the next federal election, leaving the frontbench amid the federal government’s renewed push to get social media giants to pay for news. Mr Jones has spent the last 15 years as the Member for Whitlam, having been elected back in 2010. He was eventually appointed Financial Services minister and…

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January 29, 2025

Chinese humanoid robots showcase folk dance skills ahead of Lunar New Year

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

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January 29, 2025

WA TAFE centre to build up future defence workforce

A Defence TAFE Centre of Excellence will be set up in Western Australia with the help of the federal government to deliver industry training opportunities in support of AUKUS. The centre, announced alongside the state’s Defence and Defence Industry Strategy 2025 on Wednesday, will offer training across the five defence domains of land, air, maritime,…

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January 8, 2025

Govt urged to take the lead on micro-credentials

Government support for industry-developed micro-credentials can reverse a decline in productivity growth and should be prioritised by government, according to one of the Parliament’s emerging leaders on technology and innovation policy issues. Liberal backbencher and co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Tech and Innovation Aaron Violi is calling on the federal government to “turbo charge”…

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December 6, 2024

Australia’s new invitation-only innovation visa comes online

Entrepreneurs, investors and researchers will need to be invited by Immigration minister Tony Burke to apply for Australia’s new National Innovation visa under changes introduced to “target high-calibre migrants”. As the refreshed permanent migration scheme comes online, the government has updated the application rules to make the visa invite-only, limiting it as pathway for individuals…

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December 4, 2024

Bullying, pay gap in male dominated ’24/7′ cyber sector

Gender biases, stereotypes and inequities are limiting women’s participation in the Australian cybersecurity sector, according to new research that recommends changes to the current “24/7 culture”. A report by RMIT cyber and social researchers released on Wednesday found the barriers are making it harder to address gender equity in an Australian sector where less than…

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November 6, 2024

A university ‘spin-in’ to drive the semiconductor sector

Macquarie University has ratcheted-up ambitions for commercialising technology in the semiconductor industry, launching an on-campus Silicon Platforms Lab (SiP Lab) in collaboration with local startup Atto Devices. The structure of the collaboration is effectively a mirror opposite of a university ‘spin-out’. It is instead a university ‘spin-in’, where industry startup Atto Devices has been brought…

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October 4, 2024

Our leaders must be fluent in the language of technology

Change must start at the top, with upskilling of Australian executives and leaders. As consumers, Australians are world-leading in adopting new technologies. But our businesses, and their corporate boards, are often much slower and unprepared when adopting new and disruptive technologies. But technology is essential for Australia’s transition to become a more complex, high-value economy….

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August 28, 2024

STEM diversity is critical for our future prosperity

Those of us working on the persistent challenge of getting more women and girls into STEM study and careers often remind people that “you can’t be what you can’t see” – making the observation that girls at school, and women making career choices, need to have visible diverse role models to demonstrate the opportunities open…

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August 20, 2024

STEM diversity programs reshaped for new push

The federal government’s reshaped funding package for STEM diversity was laid out for the first time on Tuesday, revealing long-term extensions and tweaks to several programs but the end of others. A long-running citizen science grant program joins the Women in STEM ambassador and the Boosting Female Founders Initiatives as casualties of the Albanese government’s…

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August 14, 2024

ATO to save $32m on tech outsourcing

The Australian Taxation Office will cut tech outsourcing by $32 million, with the agency’s adoption of artificial intelligence and other automation technologies to be increasingly delivered in-house. The decline in outsourcing expenditure will make way for more information technology, service delivery and data analytics being done by public servants, according to its latest corporate plan….

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July 17, 2024

Turning around Australia’s lagging economic complexity

Productivity growth has driven prosperity in developed and emerging economies since the Industrial Revolution. But it has now stalled in many of these economies, unfortunately nowhere more so than in Australia. Over the last decade, we have experienced the lowest productivity growth in 60 years at 1.2 percent a year, with Australia dropping to 16th…

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July 16, 2024

PsiQuantum to help shape Qld uni offerings

Queensland’s biggest universities have struck a skills partnership with PsiQuantum that gives the Silicon Valley startup a say in the direction their science, technology and maths courses take. The memorandum of understanding, which comes as the company looks to secure a pipeline of talent for its attempts to build the world’s first fault tolerant quantum…

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June 24, 2024

Plating up our smarts will take more than just a plan

The tasty concept of paddock to plate has gained popularity in recent years – with people attracted to the idea of fewer middlemen, simplified supply chains, and faster and fresher food. It’s a concept that we’d do well to keep in our mind as Australia looks to transform its economy from one that simply digs…

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June 21, 2024

WA’s $8m wind turbine component facility run by AMGC

The Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre will drive the Western Australian government’s $8 million plan to boost wind turbine component manufacturing in the state. Formerly operating as one of the federal Industry Growth Centres, the now independent AMGC will administer a new industry support program aimed at developing local capacity and capability for wind turbine manufacturing…

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June 20, 2024

Most Australian businesses not innovating, data reveals

Less than half of Australian businesses are now considered innovation-active, according to new biennial data that reveals a tough economic environment is drying up the funds and skills needed for new ventures within firms. This innovation-active measure captures the introduction of new goods, services, or processes in addition to innovation that was under development or…

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June 18, 2024

WA issues call for $22m hydrogen institute

Applications to design the Western Australian government’s new $22 million hydrogen training and research facility for the Pilbara will close next week, rounding out a two-week tender period. The Clean Energy Training and Research Institute (CETRI) aims to support the establishment of a clean industries workforce in the region and is a part of the…

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May 24, 2024

Our skills black hole is Australia’s next urgent challenge

If securing a future made in Australia and becoming a green energy superpower are universally acknowledged as moonshot ambitions, then skilling the Australian workforce to achieving these goals must be recognised as nothing less than an interstellar challenge. In fact, if you dwell on the magnitude of the skills gap that the nation needs to…

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