AIIA Skills Hub launch boosts Australia’s ICT industry

THE Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) has launched the AIIA Skills Hub to create a digital skills platform that connects ICT training needs of industry and employees with vocational education and training (VET), tertiary and industry digital courses.

According to AIIA research, CEO Ron Gauci said, Australia has long had a digital skills gap and the AIIA Skills Hub seeks to fill that gap by mapping employee skills to career pathways and relevant training courses “as well as being the hub for digital badging for micro credentialing courses and repository for digital badges and accreditation”.

The AIIA Skills Hub has been built to support two AIIA industry and QUT co-designed micro-credentialing courses on cyber security and innovation in IT, but will also provide a central place where any VET or tertiary courses can be plugged in to the Hub, where employees can map their skills gap and identify appropriate courses to meet their future career needs.

The AIIA Skills Hub has launched with initial courses from QUT, CQU, QLD TAFE, and Microsoft.

“These courses will be built out with our other educational institutional members as a priority that will be mapped against the global Skills Frameworks for the Information Age (SFIA), an industry skills framework used by major Australian digital employers,” Mr Gauci said. 

Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, Senator Michaelia Cash, said digital skills are in high demand across the country and will form an essential part of Australia’s future economy. 

“The Morrison Government is committed to upskilling and reskilling Australians, as we come out of COVID-19, with a record investment of almost $7 billion in vocational education and training this year,” Ms Cash said.  

“The launch of the AIIA Skills Hub is a great example of industry partnering with quality training providers to grow Australia’s ICT skills capabilities and the skills necessary for a modern digital economy,” the Minister said.

AIIA CEO, Ron Gauci, said, “We’re proud to provide further opportunities for AIIA members to develop their skills and continue to be highly valued employees across industries. Working with QUT and the SkillsLogiQ platform, the AIIA has been able to deliver a great platform for our members that will provide additional capability to grow skills and ensure Australia’s ICT workers will continue to be world class.

“Through this initiative, the AIIA is encouraging the growth of strong domestic skills and innovation ecosystem to support a globally competitive economy while the step change to digital transformation occurs,” Mr Gauci said.

“In a post-COVID economy, we know that strong skills in the ICT sector will continue to be highly sought after by employers.

“We’ve seen during the COVID pandemic the adoption of digital services expand at a rate that was expected to take many years. These are changes that will be permanent and will shape the Australian economy for years to come,” Mr Gauci said.

Individuals will be able to create a Skills Passport to map and manage their skills for career development. Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Queensland TAFE and NSW TAFE will provide high quality short courses.

Industry experts including Microsoft, LinkedIn and GITHub will provide free ICT specialist training. In turn, this program will help educators to provide employer relevant programs for Australian ICT students, Mr Gauci said.

The Skills Hub has been created based on the SkillsLogiQ platform. The program will help individuals plan skills development and career pathways and provide a ‘learning academy’ to support ongoing career development. Australia’s leading universities and TAFEs will be able to join the program and offer their short courses to AIIA members around Australia. 

The AIIA is a not-for-profit organisation aimed at fuelling Australia’s future social and economic prosperity through technology innovation.

www.aiia.com.au 

 

Skills Hub video overview: https://youtu.be/TVrc7Yi0d20

How members will access their skills passport: https://youtu.be/-XPVngYL2aM

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