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.

Athabasca University launches online workplace skills courses

Brian Stewart
Deputy CIO,
University of Alberta
Leading the Crafting a
Digital Strategy Course

Athabasca University (Canada) has launched "PowerED"™, a set of online self paced short courses for workplace skills. Brian Stewart, Deputy CIO of the University of Alberta, is leading the Crafting a Digital Strategy course (and former student in my ICT Sustainability course). The announcement is well timed, with reports such as Deloitte Access Economic's "Premium Skills" pointing out the value of soft and digital skills. However, like other "microlearning modules", offered by universities, it is not clear how this education fits with current offerings: Does this count towards a degree? Is it recognized by industry?

The Digital Transformation Leadership Certificate in Cloud (shortening the name to save time), consists of five courses: Decoding Disruptive Technologies, Crafting a Digital Strategy, AWS Cloud Foundations, Leading Transformational Change, and Implementing a Digital Future. Each of these requires a minimum of 16 hours work, over two weeks. So the certificate would require 80 hours work, over 10 weeks. That is a little shorter than an Australian university semester-long course. This is much larger than the Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) recognized micro-credentials which start at about 40 hours study. But it is shorter than proposed in the European MOOC Consortium (EMC)  a Common Microcredential Framework (CMF), which envisages 100 to 150 hours study.

The first five of certificates offered by AU are:

1. Leader Development Program Certificate;  
2. Essential Skills for Leaders Certificate;  
3. Digital Transformation Leadership in Cloud Certificate;  
4. Digital Transformation Leadership in Machine Learning Certificate; and  
5. Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification™ Training  

Computer Professionals Providing Mobile Learning for the Digital Economy

The theme of the Computer Society of Sri Lanka  National IT Conference (NITC 2018),  2 to 4 October, is "IT Changes Everything". Australian speakers include Craig Horne the Vice President of the Australian Computer Society, Michael Johnson the ACS Director of Professional Standards, entrepreneur Carey Furze and myself.

My topic is "Computer Professionals Providing Mobile Learning for the Digital Economy". I suggest that teaching is an under-recognized skill for computing academics, they can be trained using mobile learning, and use it for teaching. There is a short promotional video and here are some notes:

Computer Professionals Providing Mobile Learning for the Digital Economy

by Tom Worthington

for NITC 2018, October, Colombo

IT Professionals Change Everything

IT developments depend on trained computer professionals to make them happen.

 Example: Async-Sync Learning System being built at ANU.

Drive the Digital Economy Through Education

Education is an under-recognized specialist area for  computer professionals.

Example: Free open online ICT Sustainability Course, delivered via the open source Moodle Learning Management System, by ACS, ANU, and Athabasca University for the last ten years.

Changes Needed in Education

1. Qualify computer professionals as education specialists at higher education institutions.
2. Accelerate their training, using mobile learning.
3. Have these professionals design and deliver mobile learning.
4. Teach these techniques to educators in other disciplines and other education systems.

Key Metrics

What proportion of your computer educators are dual qualified in computing and education?

What proportion of your computer education courses are offered on-line via mobile devices?

Register Now

NITC 2018, Colombo
2 to 4 October 2018
http://www.nitc.lk/2018/