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Tech sector critical to Australia’s growth
ACS CEO responds to Jobs and Skills Summit
2 September 2022
This week’s Jobs and Skills Summit has illustrated the importance of the digital and IT sector to the nation and the opportunities the tech industry offers Australians, however we must look beyond skilled migration to meet the nation’s technology workforce needs, ACS CEO Chris Vein says.
“ACS welcomes the attention on skills that are relevant to the industries and technologies of the future. We look forward to future discussion with Minister Husic, Prime Minister Albanese and Cabinet on how these might be further developed and diffused through consideration of a broad ranging industry transformation strategy.
“The technology sector will be one of the key employers delivering well-paid, secure jobs to Australians while also ensuring the nation’s industries are globally competitive and can meet today’s and tomorrow’s sustainability, environmental and economic challenges.
“Our annual Digital Pulse report forecasts the tech workforce is going to continue to grow strongly and that over 1.2 million workers will be employed by the sector by 2027.
“Immigration is part of addressing the nation’s technology workforce needs, and ACS welcomes the increased allocation of 6,800 technology workers to the skilled migration program along with streamlined visa processing to overcome the current backlogs.
“We need to also be attracting more young Australians into the sector and provide more opportunities to workers to acquire digital skills, while building the infrastructure to enable regional Australia to participate equally in the connected, global economy.
“It is also important we boost diversity across all sectors. Women in particular are under-represented in the technology workforce, and we need to be doing more to increase the opportunities for all groups to participate.
“This leads us to broader government policies around issues such as childcare, unemployment support and taxation. We need to be considering the economic challenges for people to join the workforce or reskill into growth sectors.
“In our submission to the government’s Employment White Paper, ACS will outline measures to ensure all Australians, regardless of who they are and where they live, have access to jobs in the ICT sector. Similarly, we will propose measures to ensure our businesses and industries have access to the global digital workforce so that our economy remains competitive.
“Overall, there’s been much positive talk out of the Jobs and Skills Summit and we look forward to working with federal and state governments, along with business groups, educators and other stakeholders, to give all Australians the opportunity to be part of the high-growth technology sector.”
-ENDS-
Director of Corporate Affairs and Public Policy
About Us
ACS is the professional association for Australia’s technology sector and the largest community with 47,000+ members from across business, government and education.
ACS champions the technologies, people and skills critical to Australia’s future, creating value for ACS members, the tech sector and society in four ways:
Community
Our focus is on fostering an innovative and inclusive community that is dedicated to powering positive change through technology.
Capability
We set the standard for assessing, developing and recognising the skills and experience of technology professionals.
Career
We create career pathways to guide technology professionals and ensure Australia has a pipeline of talent with the right skills and knowledge.
Migration
We assess and support skilled technology migrants to address critical skills shortages, improve diversity and enrich Australia’s workforce.
Find out more at: acs.org.au