Government launches pilot program to develop Australia’s digital sector

A federal government pilot program will consider new ways of designing training and qualifications for entry-level data analysts and to support the general workforce.

Creating a workforce that can meet the changing needs of Australia’s digital economy will require fit-for-purpose qualifications, and the federal government is spending millions to improve the VET system to this end. 

Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills and Small Business Stuart Robert said on Thursday the Digital Skills Organisation (DSO) pilot would work with employers, job seekers and training providers to develop the specialised training.

“This pilot is doing the work to ensure those qualifications are fit-for-purpose so we can improve our skills pipeline and bring more Australians into our digital workforce,” Robert said.

“[It] will provide a picture of what specialist digital skills are needed, improve the relationship between employers and the training system, and get more people into jobs.”

The program will build on a Train 100 Data Analysts project carried out by the DSO to provide job opportunities to Australians that will allow them to gain digital skills in ‘new and innovative’ ways. 

The DSO is one of three federally funded ‘skills organisations’ pilots that work with industry to lead strategic thinking on a wide range of workforce and skilling issues.

Robert said that an extra 10,000 places for digital skills training students had been committed by the government in the federal budget under a $2 billion JobTrainer fund. 

“Australia’s digital workforce is fundamental to our future prosperity— our economic plan is focused on protecting jobs today and through trials like this we are working to secure the jobs of tomorrow,” the minister added.

This article was first published by The Mandarin.