Developing a national sovereign AI strategy

For the first time in a long time this week I missed the launch of the annual Australia’s Digital Pulse, by the Australian Computer Society at the National Press Club (earlier in the day I twisted my knee running for a bus). The report has 10 recommendations. My comments on some:

1. Develop a national sovereign AI strategy: The ACS is calling for a "long-term vision for sovereign AI development". However, I suggest this should be looking for short term measures. If Australia looks to the long term the strategy will be out of date before it can be implemented. As I suggested for the ACT Government last week, we can look to countries such as Singapore, for mature AI strategies to emulate.
   
   
2. Develop an innovation strategy: The Australian Government is to release a "Strategic Examination of Research and Development", this year. Aligning workforce readiness with innovation by encouraging entrepreneurship is my day job. Government can do more to support startups and scaleups. One area is for defence, where the nation needs new capabilities quickly. Cancelling a few failed big ticket defence projects reliant on overseas suppliers could provide thousands of billions of dollars for local innovation.
   
   
3. Government co-investment in scaleups: Not so sure about this recommendation, as it sounds dangerously like government trying to pick winners. Apart from strategically important areas, such as defence, energy security and availability of vaccines, government should avoid direct investment in scaleups, as they are really, really bad at it. 
4. Greater incentives for R&D in AI and tech adoption by businesses: ACS point out there is a skills gap in the use of AI by business. The obvious solution, I suggest, is training. Many of the computer project students I teach are planning to work in AI. To them it is not new and exotic, just a tool they are very familiar with. We need vocational education programs which similarly give business people a deep understanding of AI. 
5. Executives take a digital skills health check: Rather than trying to get C-suite leaders up to scratch on digital capabilities, I suggest political parties, government agencies and company boards need to hire more technocrats. We need some digital professionals running the nation and corporations, not just lawyers who learned a bit about computers.
6. Promote entry-level pathways for cybersecurity professionals: ACS point out that we simply can't get enough computer professionals to fill cyber security positions. What we can do is take people qualified in allied fields and train them up. This can be done online with vocational education techniques, rather than in university lecture theatres.
7. Implement an ‘earn while you learn’ scheme: ACS proposes business and government sharing the cost of worker retraining. Unfortunately what has tended to happen is as federal government introduces subsidies for university and vocational education, business and state governments have stopped funding. We have the technology to do the retraining (I spent a decade learning how this works). The problem is to make a watertight agreement on funding which business and states will abide by. Assuming Jobs and Skills Australia release their national skills taxonomy promptly, this can be used (if not someone else can). This can be aligned with the UK based Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), used by ACS. The match will not be perfect. When ACS commissioned me to design a course in Green Computing (way back in 2008), there were no relevant skills in SFIA. I sent SFIA HQ a copy of my course and they added green skills, but that took considerable time.
8. A national commitment to alternative tech pathways: ACS argues for greater trust in vocational qualifications by business. Another approach to this, I suggest, is the use of the Vocational Degrees, added to the Australian Qualifications Framework in February 2025. With this entry level staff can obtain a certificate and then go on to a degree at the same vocational institution. This should give business more comfort as to the depth of training provided. 

Every business is a tech business

Speaking at the launch of the ACS Digital Pulse report John Griggs, ACS CEO, said "Every business is a tech business". This is at the National Press Club in Canberra. The point wat that all businesses need technical staff. The problem is that as the report details, universities cannot produce enough graduates and school leavers don't want to enrol anyway.

The ACS solution is non-traditional paths, through certification, and microcredentials. One problem I can see is convincing the workers, employers and regulators that the alternative pathways are as good as traditional education. This is similar to the poor reputation online learning has had: research shows it is as good, if not better than classroom based learning, but there is still a perception it is inferior. 

ACS Digital Pulse 2023

Greetings from the National Press club in Canberra, where the ACS Digital Pulse 2023 report was just launched by Mr Jerome Laxale MP, Member for Bennelong.  The report confirms a looming tech skills crisis, with 1.3 million additional skilled workers being needed. This is also bad news with women's share of the tech workforce going backwards in the last year. The ACS and the report by Deloitte call for training in AI, data analytics and robotics. These might sound like matters effecting only a small select section of the community. But I have spent the week talking to the media about the Optus network outage, with operations at Australian hospitals delayed, then a cyber attack at Australian ports stopping goods. The report also calls for more flexible credentialing with recognition of micro-credentials, and industry certifications.

Race to the Top for Talent Says new Australian Computer Society CEO

Greetings from the National Press Club in Canberra, where the Australian Computer society are launching the "ACS Australia’s Digital Pulse 2022" report. Chris Vein, the new ACS CEO, fresh from the USA, described how Australia is in a "race to the top" for global computer talent. This year's Pulse report, prepared by Deloitte Access Economics, backs this up, with details of the growth areas for demand for personnel, particularly as cyber security, digital analytics, and AI. The Hon Ed Husic MP, Minister for Science, then talked about the ACT's role in support of government, and proposals of the new government to open up contracts to local tenderers. The Minister also mentioned the issue of diversity, arguing technology industries have suffered from a lack leading to poor design. The Pulse report (Page 16) bears this out, with a 31% female computer workforce, compared to 46% for professions generally. 

I asked the Minister about cyber training in the region, particularly Indonesia, where a recent ANU National Security College report expressed concern. The Minister mentioned his recent trip to Indonesia, and emphasized vocation education, and micro-credentials as areas with potenital.

Andrew Barr, Chief Minister of the ACT Government, and Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury, are also present. 

ps: The release of the Pulse report is fortuitous, as tomorrow I am helping a class of several hundred ANU computer students think about their future career.

The Future of Australia’s digital economy is bright

The Australian Computer Society has released "Australia’s Digital Pulse 2021". This is an annual snapshot of the digital economy and job prospects by Deloitte Access Economics. As the report notes, due to COVID-19 it is a boom time for computers and telecommunications. Work and study from home, tele-medicine, online parliament and courts, went from fringe ideas to the mainstream in 2020.  As the report notes, home working doubled from February 2020 to 2021. The resulting demand for technology workers to keep this boom working is likely to continue, at least until 2026. 

Deloitte Access Economics expects demand for working from home to continue, with a consequent need for better digital skills. The technology workforce grew by 4.3% in Australia and a remarkable  10% in NSW. 

Computing was the growth area for university degrees in 2020. The report identifies programming as still in demand by employers, particularly SQL and Java, and also DevOps (which is not a language). Employers also continue to ask for the usual soft skills:  communication (human to human, not computer to computer),  teamwork and problem solving.

Deloitte Access Economics identifies Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an area in demand. The report notes there is ground to be made up with less than a third female IT staff, compared to about half in  professional, scientific and technical jobs.

The report argues for increased professionalism of the technology workforce. As the report notes, this is typically done through higher education degrees. However, I suggest we will see a continuing trend to more flexible programs, integrating work experience and many small specialist qualifications which can be assembled into a degree.

Deloitte Access Economics take a pessimistic view suggesting  international travel restrictions will continue until 2024. They suggest this will force more reliance on those already in Australia obtaining qualifications to fill jobs. However, I suggest the lock-downs have shown that many jobs can be done from anywhere, with the right tools and training. The student teams I help teach, who are undertaking group projects are gaining valuable experience learning to work in virtual teams of people from different cultures, for clients they have never met in person. 

A difficult issue the report raises is how IT fits in the training of other professions. This is an area in which I suggest IT educators should take the lead, being able to tailor curricular for different needs of disciplines.

An even more difficult issue raised by Deloitte Access Economics is how to have more women studying IT. STEM content in schools may help, as the report suggests, but perhaps changes are needed to the definition of what an computer professional is and does. That computing has an identity problem did not occur to me until I studied education as an international student. Here I went from being part of the the dominant workplace culture to a minority.

ps: I am a member of the ACS Profession Advisory Board.

Supply of technology workers in Australia

The Australian Computer Society, released the ACS Australia’s Digital Pulse 2019 report yesterday. This is an overview of the digital economy, workforce and current policy environment, by Deloitte Access Economics. Of particular interest to educators is the section on Supply of technology workers in Australia (p. 10). The report concludes "The highest policy priority for the digital economy is skills development." and suggests "... we need more people to consider moving from other occupations to take one of the additional 100,000 jobs that will be created in technology by 2024...". This is good news for those of us involved in IT education.

One way to retrain is by applying vocational and online educational techniques, flipped, blended, and peer assessed.

Developing Australia’s the Digital Workforce

Greetings from the Press Club in Canberra, where the Australian Computer Society (ACS) has just launched the report "Australia’s Digital Pulse: Developing the digital workforce to drive growth in the future" commissioned from Deloitte Access Economics (DAE). The report speculates about technologies which may effect manufacturing, construction and mining, but fails to address the effect ICT is already having on education.


The 108 page report predicts that Australia’s digital economy is will "grow significantly over the coming years". Technologies expected to expand are "cloud services, social media and mobile devices". These seem a safe prediction, but others are "3D printing in manufacturing, drones in the construction industry and driverless vehicles on mining sites". I doubt that any of these will be significant for Australia.

Australia already has driver-less trucks on mining sites and driver-less trains for ore transport. However, these provide only minor increases in productivity for declining industries.  "drones" (that is pilot-less miniature aircraft) may have a minor role in the construction industry. 3D printing will have a role in manufacturing and might provide a minor revival for Australia's declining manufacturing industry.

What is curiously lacking in the Deloitte report is mention of education as an industry. The report mentions education, but only in the role of providing ICT education. The report does not discuss the revolution taking place in all levels of education, through the application of ICT. In particular the report does not mention education as a twenty billion dollar a year export industry for Australia. ICT provides opportunities to expand Australia's education exports into new international markets. However, ICT also opens about half a million Australian education jobs up to overseas competition and could see much of the $80B education budget being sent overseas.

One interesting innovation in how the report as prepared is the use of LinkedIn to gauge demand for ICT personnel.

Contents

Executive summary 3

1. Digital economy snapshot 8

1.1 Future waves of digital disruption  10
1.2 Australia’s digital economy 13
1.3 Australia’s ICT workforce 16
1.4 ICT business activity 22
1.5 Migration of ICT workers 24
1.6 ICT education in Australia 27

2. Occupational analysis 30

2.1 Future demand for ICT workers  32
2.2 What ICT jobs are available?  38
2.3 Broader workforce ICT skills requirements 46

3. Workforce planning and development

3.1 The case for ICT workforce and skills development
3.2 Assessing gaps in the workforce
3.3 ICT professional development opportunities
3.4 Overseas examples of ICT workforce development initiatives 63

4. Future directions 66

References 70

Appendix: Statistical compendium 74
At a glance – Australia 76
At a glance – States and Territories 77
ICT employment 78
ICT migration 85
ICT higher and vocational education 87
Women in ICT 88
Older ICT workers 89
ICT research and development 89
Trade in ICT services 90
Detailed state figures 90
International comparisons 97

From: Australia’s Digital Pulse: Developing the digital workforce to drive growth in the future,  Deloitte Access Economics, March 2016