As decades of Australian economic boom in the mining and manufacturing industry sectors are long gone, Australia is steering its economy toward service bases. Recent Australian Computer Society’s (ACS) third reports showed ICT (Information and communication technology) is the key to drive Australia economy and it also predicted more positions are remaining to be filled for years to come. But it is without challenges as Australia ICT is experiencing skills shortages and has to compete globally for top ICT experts. Arnold Wong from ACS gives his insights how to tap on Australia’s advantages.
Arnold Wong, Board Member and National Treasurer of Australian Computer Society explained why ICT is Australia’s future economy driver.
Arnold Wong “ We understand that certainly within the last two year or so, ICT has been the key driver for the Australian economy future and currently there is digital boom that has been providing 40,000 jobs that has been created for the last 2 years. And the ICT export has gone up to 12% to 2.8 billion dollars”.
With this promising potential, the ACS’ report has also forecasted that there will be 81,000 ICT job vacancies are up for grap for the next 6 years, but it is expecting that Australia’s businesses will be struggling to fill. However, ACS has an idea, said Mr. Wong.
Arnold Wong “ If we just rely on TAFE and University graduates there will be never enough both on the short term base as well as long term sustainability. What we are doing within the ACS the Australian Computer Society is to encourage our members to be more professional that other professions across all industries would want to be a part of, to cross skills and to grow the skills in ICT within their professions.”
ICT booming is not only in Australia but global phenomenon, so how can Australian deal with retaining its ICT personnel or ICT brain draining so it can stay competitive world wide?
Arnold Wong “ We have a number of very very great advantage, we have the environment the weather. Australia is very stable steady country in terms of our economy in terms of our security. So certainly Europe, Africa and Asia people would like to come. And offcourse all of us think of Silicone Valley in the America has been the leading edge. Yes they are and I am sure that they will certainly be focused on. However, with the changes in the American politics recently, there are even Americans who want to come to Australia. I believe that we can leverage our environment, leverage our culture and certainly our multicultural Australia to actually attract more and more experts. It is actually global professions, so for someone whose background and expertise in any ICT area, they can be very very easily attracted to any organisations that would like to have them. So I think we are fighting the same battle as everyone else to attract the top talent."
But ICT is like every other type of professions when it comes to workforce diversity. According to ACS’s report, there is only 28% ICT workers are women and 12% are workers over 55 years old. So what should the related parties do to attract these groups of people joining this field?
Arnold Wong “ It is a shame that in the general workforce, we are looking at about 44% of female participation whereas ICT is only 28%. And in fact, it is quite irony because ICT is one of the best suitor opportunity and profession for female whether or not when they are starting the career or returning to the career after the responsibility of bring up a family. So the opportunity for working in the ICT environment should be very good. What we need to do is encourage both our government as well as corporate employers to focus on providing the opportunity and also making sure that their recruiting processes extend to ensure that people who are in the age diversity and gender diversity area are aware that there are opportunity or even accessibility are there. So I certainly encourage all employers whether they be the government or private enterprise to look into providing opportunity for everyone.”
#### Interview feature by Jennifer Monk collated and presented by Vixay Vue
*Original story is in audio interview by Jennifer Monk, SBS Cantonese Program.
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