Team Sydney

Five Sydney schools are piloting an innovative program to enable high school students to land well-paying technology careers straight out of school, without going to university post-school.

Aimed at easing Australia’s digital skills crisis, the program draws on the traditional apprenticeship model, where someone leaves school and jumps straight into a trade. This pilot helps students build the skills needed to be job-ready for an entry-level tech role. Once they demonstrate they are proficient, they can step into a role and continue to upskill and build their tech career.

The pilot involves 1,500 students in Years 10, 11, and 12. Aptitude tests will determine their skills, natural abilities and potential to take up the technology roles Australia desperately needs filled in the next two years.

Once students are evaluated and matched with entry-level tech job, they can choose from 11 industry-recognised and accredited online training programs. These programs cover job roles such as cybersecurity, software development and data analytics.

Several big employers in Australia committed to hiring people from this initiative, lead by leading social impact organisation, WithYouWithMe, in partnership with the DSO.

“My interest in the program was piqued because I am aware of a huge lack of talent to fill a booming sector. As an academically selective school, almost all of our students, and their families, are focussed on a tertiary education, often with aspirations in the more traditional career paths of engineering, law and medicine. My motivation for engaging our students in this work was to broaden their horizons of other possible career options and pathways in, in this case, digital skills.

Education to employment provider Generation Australia (GA) is providing unemployed and underemployed Australians with the opportunity to reskill into in-demand tech jobs and connect them with employers seeking this talent.

At the same time, their approach is helping to create a more inclusive workforce by accessing diverse talent from across Australia. Over half of the learners in GA’s programs have dependents, 84 percent are from a CALD background (culturally and linguistically diverse), and 56 percent are women.

Accenture has been a strong supporter of GA’s approach and initially provided GA with pro-bono support to co-design a cloud computing program that would produce job-ready graduates trained in technical and behavioural skills.

The firm hired its first four graduates from the cloud program into technology architecture delivery and graduate analyst roles. Inspired by the success, Accenture followed on with support to co-design a salesforce development program.

As the partnership evolved, Accenture invited 20 GA learners into its Technology Bootcamp program in 2022, and established its first ever job advert exclusively for GA graduates. In total 35 GA graduates have been offered roles at Accenture.

“This partnership provides a fast-tracked pathway into in-demand, career-launching jobs for those who may be facing barriers to employment. It illustrates the way employers need to change their approach to hiring new talent.

The Victorian Government is building the state’s digital workforce by training and upskilling mid-career Victorians to transition into digital careers.

The Digital Jobs program is supporting up to 5,000 mid-career workers to complete 12 weeks of industry-backed training, and providing opportunities to then apply their new digital skills in 12-week digital work placements with Victorian businesses and government organisations.

The program features a range of industry-backed courses to suit different interests and skills levels, delivered by universities, TAFEs and private providers. All training programs are assessed by industry experts to ensure these meet industry needs.

Interest in participating in the program was very strong, with 3,300 people selected from 24,000 applicants since the program was launched in mid-2021, with 77 percent successfully completing training. The program brings a diverse range of participants to a sector that has traditionally recruited young males. Most applicants are over 30 years, with 58 percent women and 58 percent from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Digital Jobs has demonstrated there is a large untapped pool of mid-career talent interested in transitioning into a digital career. Adding digital skills to someone’s existing knowledge, work history, and skill sets opens many new career opportunities for people while giving employers access to the digital talent they need to grow.

For more information on Digital Jobs visit vic.gov.au/digitaljobs

John Austin spent many years working in sales roles in the IT industry. He joined the Digital Jobs program and is now a cyber security specialist at carsales.com, the largest online automotive, motorcycle and marine classifieds business in Australia. “I have a lot more confidence to take on new digital skills. The course gave me a new lease on my career,” John said.

Ghada Mahmoud moved from Egypt to Australia. She joined the Digital Jobs program, studying cloud computing and was able to accommodate study into her busy family life. She is now in the Digital Innovation and Cloud Engineering team at PwC Australia. “For me the best part about the program was the placement because it gave me the opportunity to leverage my skills, to prove to myself that I can do it,” Ghada said.

A new program to help Australians develop in demand digital skills and connect them with open job roles, where employers need digital skills the most, was launched by Google.

Google Career Certificates are online courses to help upskill Australians in high growth technology areas. Senior Google experts fully developed the training, offering job-ready skills across IT support, UX design, data analytics, project management and digital marketing/e-commerce.

Through a mix of videos, assessments, hands-on labs and interactive exercises, learners are introduced to topics required for an entry-level job.

Google has built a consortium of Australian employers, including Australia Post, Woolworths Group, Canva, Optus and IAG, who recognise the qualifications and are interested in considering certificate graduates for suitable open roles within their organisations.

The company has also partnered with various community organisations to increase uptake by underrepresented groups in tech, including women and Indigenous Australians.

“Microcredentials mean people can get the skills they need – when they need them. Google’s leadership is critical to building the digital skills workers and businesses need, especially for those who are underrepresented in digital roles.”

Since 2020, Amazon Web Services (AWS) actively worked with the DSO by participating in a variety of pilots, roundtables, working groups and skills standards workshops.

Australian businesses, including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies, are using AWS to lower costs, become more agile, and innovate faster. The firm is committed to working with government and industry to drive change and innovation in the way it educates, skills, upskills and employs technical talent across the country.

The work with the DSO, and other peak industry bodies such as the Tech Council of Australia, resulted in AWS designing and launching a digital traineeship model that is both recognised under the Australian Qualification Framework (AQF) and delivers participants with industry certifications.

The combination makes the student highly employable in entry level tech roles. This traineeship is being piloted in 2023 within a VET in a Schools environment and with adult learners.

AWS is committed to hiring VET graduates into entry level roles. It already runs an active traineeship program that employs students undertaking a Diploma Program from Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology, and will be looking to expand those opportunities in the future as more VET courses embed cloud technology skills.

“Australia has the opportunity to amplify immense economic benefits from building a strong pipeline of cloud talent to support the country’s ongoing digital transformation.”

“I was fortunate to get on to the AWS Women’s Apprenticeship delivered with Swinburne University. This gives me an opportunity to get back to my IT career after few years’ gap. The best thing about this program is access to higher education in demanding cloud technology, on the job training with AWS global expert trainers and complete access to AWS resources. If you are passionate about IT, keen to learn and dedicated, this is the best opportunity you can ever get into.”

Holberton School Australia, an extension of the global computer science school, empowers aspiring software engineers through a ‘learn by doing’ project-based curriculum.

The nine-month ‘Foundations of Software Engineering Program’ equips students with the practical skills and hands-on experience needed to excel in the tech industry.

Launched in Australia in January 2022, Holberton aims to make a tech career accessible to a more diverse audience, who are typically mid-career switchers and up-skillers. Its automated admissions process is completely ‘blind’ to remove human biases and was created specifically to identify smart, motivated people. It is agnostic to previous education, work experience, gender, ethnicity, or age.

Holberton collaborates with industry leaders like REA Group and Reece Tech to up-skill non-technical employees, and guarantees a job interview with Accenture to all students.

By providing an alternative path to a career in tech, whilst fostering strong relationships with their corporate partners, Holberton is proactively addressing digital skills training in Australia.

“I don’t think I actually thought that I could become a software engineer – that didn’t actually seem possible to me. And even though I enrolled, and signed up, it was only recently that I accepted that, oh, okay – maybe being a software engineer is possible.”

A consortium of 11 TAFEs are working together to provide students with the most needed technical skills and knowledge for a career in cyber security.
Called TAFEcyber, the consortium is led by National Chair, Julia Burns MBA, and supported by key government and industry partners including AustCyber and Ionize.

A unique benefit of the consortium lies in its ability to access the cyber security training environments of every TAFE involved to replicate realistic attack scenarios, developed by a private sector company.

As well as technical components, students focus on responding to critical incidents and aspects relating to forensics, communications and legal and privacy concerns. Lecturers also go through the same scenarios in advance.

Students work from state-of-the-art Cyber Security Operations Training Centres, providing them with the capability to learn on equipment that is widely used within the industry, giving them relevant job-ready skills and cyber security qualifications. The current completion to employment rate is 100 percent.

In line with the nature of cyber attacks, TAFEcyber is now looking to extend the collaboration overseas to enable training for responding to multi-country attacks.

“Cyber security is always changing, so it’s one of the toughest areas to train for. By collaborating with TAFEs across the country we have created a network of digital excellence with single shared information sources, professional development opportunities for lecturers and valuable realistic cyber scenarios. Working together also means we have a fantastic pool of expertise we can draw on to regularly review and update course materials.”

“I won two national championships during my time as an Advanced Diploma of Cyber Security student. This is only possible because of the tremendous amount of support from the lecturers and I will be forever grateful for that. The hands-on experience that I have gained throughout my time at South Metropolitan TAFE has been very helpful for my learning journey. I would highly recommend everyone to consider TAFE as a study pathway.

A West Melbourne school is paving the way for future-focused tech education by making tech relevant to the future workforce and their teachers.

Wyndham Tech School is a STEM Centre of Excellence where industry, education and community collaborate to shape the future. It supports secondary schools in the Wyndham and Hobsons Bay areas by teaching year 7 to 12 students STEM skills in a fun and interactive way.

All of Wyndham’s courses advocate digital literacy for everybody while giving those who have an interest in becoming digital experts the chance to go deeper.

One popular program, designed with industry and education leaders, is the Future of Work. Designed for entire year levels it is focused on collaboration and creativity whilst building digital skills across all learning areas. It has recently been expanded to cover cutting-edge topics and technologies, such as AI, data science and drones.

The school also offers a Digital Accelerator Program for teachers. The two-day program features hands-on experience with technological tools, enhancing understanding of how to embed the tools in and across different teaching disciplines.

Wyndham Tech School is made possible by the vision of the Victorian State Government, supported by annual funding from the Department of Education and Training and hosted by Victoria University (VU), A dual sector university.

“We work closely with our industry partners to design industry-driven curriculum and projects for students, focused on the digital and enterprise skills in demand by industry, now and in the future.”

“It’s about inspiring young people, supporting them to achieve their best, and aligning industry and education to create clear pathways into the jobs of the future.”

Sam Nikolsky, Acting Director, Wyndham Tech School

A global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, Infosys, is leading a global initiative as part of its Environmental, Social and Governance vision to empower over 10 million people with digital skills by 2025.

In Australia, as part of its corporate social responsibility program, Infosys has extended its next generation, digital learning platform, Infosys Springboard, to empower people, communities, and society with skills to be successful.

In collaboration with Tennis Australia, Infosys is helping nurture the next generation of leaders in the Australian community as part of the Future Leaders program in Victoria. Year 10 and 11 students from metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria can access digital learning enabled by Infosys Springboard. Through a customised version of the platform, program beneficiaries can learn transferable skills in areas such as inclusion, marketing, leadership, technology and design thinking.

Infosys’ Springboard program covers a wide range of digital skills, including leadership, data analytics, cloud computing, and cyber security. The vision for Infosys’ CSR program in Australia is to create pathways to learning and education among diverse communities by enabling inclusive education, digital learning, and engaging experiences.

“We are delighted to partner with Infosys on the Tennis Victoria Future Leaders program. The young people that come through our clubs have so much potential and it’s wonderful to be able to give them a platform via Infosys Springboard to develop their leadership skills.”

“Infosys’s Springboard platform is designed to help enable digital skills among diverse groups in Australia. Our partnership with Tennis Australia and Tennis Victoria is helping advance important leadership and digital skills among year 10 and year 11 students via Infosys’s state of the art digital learning platform.”