Digital apprenticeships and lifting caps on migration were among the measures to address the technology skills shortage announced by the Albanese government at last week’s Jobs and Skills Summit.
'Digital apprenticeships’ will be introduced to support workers to earn while they learn in entry level technology roles, with equity targets for those traditionally under-represented in digital and technology fields
The government intends for companies to be able to sign up to a ‘Digital and Tech Skills Compact’, which commits them to employ a proportion of new employees through the digital an apprenticeship scheme..
The list of “36 immediate initiatives”, also includes delivering 1,000 digital traineeships in the Australian Public Service over the next four years.
The government also committed to expanding Australia’s migrant workforce.
It will lift the permanent Migration Program ceiling from 160,000 to 195,000 in 2022-23 and allocate $36.1 million of additional funding to accelerate visa processing and try and resolve the visa backlog.
Restrictions on international students’ working rights will be relaxed, with graduates allowed to stay an additional two years after completing their courses, provided their qualifications are “in areas of verified skills shortages."
The government intends to explore more ways to grow the migrant workforce, including “expand[ing] pathways to permanent residency for temporary skilled sponsored workers, raise[ing] the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold,” and, “reform[ing] the current labour market testing process following consultation with unions and business.”
The government also promised “$1 billion in joint federal-state funding for fee-free TAFE places in 2023 and the “accelerated delivery” of 465,000 fee-free TAFE places and 20,000 additional commonwealth-supported university places it previously committed to providing.
These announcements follow news that small businesses could get a bonus 20 per cent deduction on eligible external training costs and bonus 20 per cent deduction to support uptake of digital technology.
Given the time it will take for many of these measures to come to fruition, proactive staffing measures will remain important for technology providers looking to hire.
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