Indigenous Australians, mature-aged and young people amongst those to be trained and employed as data analysts in push to close digital skills gap with diverse talent
The Digital Skills Organisation (DSO) has announced online learning provider, General Assembly, indigenous ICT training provider Goanna Education and TAFE Queensland as the winners of its first pilot project to trial and test innovative solutions to train and employ one-hundred data analysts each.
The DSO is an initiative led by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment as part of the Delivering Skills for Today and Tomorrow package. The organisation has been tasked by the Federal Government to shape the Vocational Education and Training (VET) Sector, by taking an industry-led approach to digital skills training and employment in Australia.
Sally Browner, CEO of Goanna Education has expressed the businesses’ excitement to be involved, and the opportunities this invites for people of diverse backgrounds to develop tech skills.
“Goanna Education is so incredibly excited to be part of the DSO initiative to develop innovative ways to train up to 1,000 Data Analysts. Goanna is passionate about driving diversity in the tech sector and we are bringing to the table, a wealth of knowledge about effective, intensive, technology education, amazing connections with industry and a vision for better inclusion of First Nations candidates in this style of program.”
The ‘Train 100 Data Analyst’ project is the first in a series of projects designed to fund, test and evaluate improved ways of training people in digital skills to get people into digital jobs, to help close Australia’s digital skills gap. Following the successful completion of the pilot the DSO will look to scale these approaches to train and employ over 1,000 data analysts.
This project is testing an ‘employer-led’ approach that allows training providers to develop course content specific to employers’ needs. Incentives are used to help ensure course graduates find guaranteed employment at the successful completion of the training.
Patrick Kidd, OBE OAM and CEO at Digital Skills Organisation said: “We are thrilled to announce General Assembly, Goanna Education and TAFE Queensland as the winners of our pilot project, which tests innovative ways to train and employ data analysts. The DSO is focussed on ensuring we get Australians into digital jobs with the right knowledge and skills for them to be immediately relevant in the workplace. There’s a significant demand for people in work with digital skills and our aim is to streamline the process of training to ensure the right people with the right skills are in the right jobs.”
Following the pilot, the DSO will take evidence-based insight to inform the Government’s agenda and create a VET system that can provide an innovative and world-leading approach to digital skills training in Australia.
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