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National problem

Australia is regarded as one of the world’s most successful nations and often ranked highly in international measurements of our economic and social development.

However, this is not the case in digital skills and training. Australia is ranked 40th in the world for digital skills, the sector that will be driving forward growth globally as the world shifts into industry 5.0.

Research shows that one of the core reasons for this is that Australia is facing a national digital skills supply deficit which is ultimately affecting the digital output of our nation. We are not currently producing or upskilling enough quality talent at a high enough rate to deliver to the needs of organisation’s across Australia, large and small.

This is likely to have a significant and growing impact on our nation’s ability to compete on the world stage with world-class talent in digital.
As the growth in digital continues to advance at a rapid rate Australia is falling behind, fast. The fast rate of change in the digital space can be a massive opportunity for Australia to harness and build locally grown, sustainable and inclusive talent.

How FSO will tackle the problem:

Design the foundations

• Leverage of best practices and captured in a new and simple Digital Skills Development Model.
• Digital career pathways need to be defined and matched to meet the needs of employers.
• Use employers to drive skill standards to increase relevancy and valued digital qualifications

Enable Digital upskilling

• Evaluate, support, and conduct pilots and programmes through testing, learning, evolving and scaling to enable people to digitally upskill easier and encourage life-long learning.

Uplift capability

• Develop tools, products and processes which are used by employers, training organisations and teachers to deliver great digital training. Integrate employers into the planning and delivery of training.
• Engage stakeholders Develop a community of employers, training providers, GTOs and training product developers to create an environment that supports innovation in training development and delivery. Engage with communities to ensure the value of ICT/Digital skills are understood and the range of opportunities available in a digital career.

Through targeted initiatives we will engage with employers to actively lead discussions, events, working groups and encourage two-way feedback.