IT employers invited to Opportunities Australia Expos

Speaking about a recent exhibition held in South Africa, Simone Shugg, human resources business partner, corporate and business division, HBOS Australia said: “We weren’t sure what to expect but were hoping to make contact with a number of banking and IT professionals.

“We were very impressed with the quality of people with a banking background and how prepared they were with resumes as well as how they had researched HBOS.”

According to Kumar Parakala, President of the ACS (Australian Computer Society) it has been advocating for solutions to skills shortages challenges within the ICT industry for some time referring to it as a ‘real’, but complex issue.

“The ACS Quantifying Current and Forecast ICT Employment Report, which we released in August this year calculated that the skills gap will grow by 29 percent by the year 2010 to just over 14,000 jobs and an estimated 25,000 jobs by 2020 unless changes are made to ICT employment and skills policies,” said Parakala.

“We are calling for a long-term partnership approach between governments and industry for the economic benefit of all Australians. This needs to happen immediately to have any impact,” he added.

Parakala claims whilst some sectors have experienced job losses within ICT, due to financial troubles, the overall need for skilled ICT employees is still evident and strong and there are a number of factors driving this.

He said in order to close the gap on skills shortages and maintain economic prosperity, the following measures are needed: maintain 2007-2008 inward and outward migration levels, increase local graduate numbers by 12.5 percent per annum from 2007 figures and reduce the ‘brain drain’ of ICT professional migrating for overseas employment.