While the conversation around STEM skills is lighting up across the IT industry, it’s clear that science, technology, engineering and mathematics aren’t igniting the imagination of enough Australian schoolchildren, which is the problem.
Recently we’ve seen IT industry leaders such as Cisco’s Ken Boal and Microsoft’s Pip Marlow investing to help increase STEM education in Australia. This debate is also happening in the schoolyard: my 13-year-old niece was telling me that STEM is an increasing topic of conversation – and curriculum – at her state high school in regional Queensland.
Watching my niece create her first HTML website filled me with hope. No doubt she’s just one of many schoolkids dabbling in code. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if an early enthusiasm in IT translates into a rich crop of talent ready to enter the technology industry in years to come?
We discuss the skills shortage in this issue. Reading Brad Howarth’s feature, it’s clear that talent is hard to come by. Everyone is hunting developers, and resellers find themselves competing with the bright lights and big salaries of Silicon Valley vendors and the allure of hot startups. It’s a difficult battle for the humble channel to win.
Regular columnist Sholto Macpherson also touches on skills shortages and how they are hampering resellers’ ability to grab hold of cloud opportunities. The Australian startup sector is growing, and these outfits will continue to soak up much of the best talent on the market.
One way cashed-up companies are grabbing talent is through acquisitions and there’s plenty afoot in the channel. In the past couple of months, we’ve seen leading Australian IT providers such as Oracle partner Dataweave, app developer Outware Mobile and, just this week, homegrown web hoster Crucial taken over.
What links these three firms? They are all alumni of the CRN Fast50! In June we hosted a launch party to kick off this year’s entry season. I highly encourage you to enter this year’s awards.
Steven Kiernan is editor of CRN
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