Following National Skills Week, the Future Skills Organisation (FSO) are emphasising the importance of digital skills in addressing national skill shortages. This comes off the back of findings from their recent report titled Growing Australia's Digital Workforce which found there is a projected 47 percent growth in the digital expert workforce by 2026.
Key findings from the report include the need for digital skills across every industry and every job, with a 12% increase in demand for digital skills across the economy since 2016. While a massive 47% growth is projected for the digital expert workforce by 2026, so too is a shortfall of 370,000 digital workers by the same year.
The CEO of Future Skills Organisation Patrick Kidd says National Skills Week is a critical time for us to set our sights on what the future of training and skills development look like in Australia.
“Skills, training and workforce shortages have dominated headlines and troubled employers, especially in recent months. These are the skills that will help to improve productivity across the economy. Our findings and learnings from our time as the Digital Skills Organisation will now inform our work as the Jobs and Skills Council for Australia’s Finance, Technology and Business sectors,” Mr Kidd said.
“It’s timely that these insights are shared during National Skills Week. We need industry, governments and training providers to come together to create a diverse, dynamic and exciting training system that is relevant to the needs of industry and meets the expectations of learners. ”
As the Jobs and Skills Council for Australia’s Finance, Technology and Business sectors, the Future Skills Organisation has been tasked to provide industry with a stronger voice into the VET sector to unlock Australia’s skill and talent potential.
“We need to collaborate with people who are passionate about developing the skills across Finance, Technology and Business to help drive the changes needed in the education and training system.”
“We want to build on the many great initiatives which are being trialled with a view to reinforcing those which will help us to deliver outcomes at scale across the Finance, Technology and Business sectors.”
The above story originally appeared as a media release from The Future Skills Organisation.