Microsoft launches new Sydney technology centre as it warns on vital skills shortage

Some of the world’s biggest organisations are looking for thousands of local workers to fill these well-paying jobs ... but they can’t find any.

As the world economy undergoes a massive technology-driven transformation, Australian workers are getting left behind.

A shortage of technical and digital skills among Aussie workers is becoming a common lament of the country’s business leaders.

“Yes, it’s an issue that we see in our business,” Microsoft Australia director Steve Worrall says.

The global tech giant says it has 10,000 enterprise partners and customers in Australia but as these local businesses to adapt to an increasingly digital economy, there are jobs they struggle to fill with local talent.

“There’s 300,000 people that work inside those 10,000 organisations. They tell me regularly that they can’t find enough skilled resources to bring into their businesses,” Mr Worrall told news.com.au.

“I know it’s been an issue for our business and it’s certainly an issue with our partners and our clients — both the public sector and the private sector.

“The challenge as a nation is to think about what we want to do. Do we want to bring in on 457 visas, or other visas, people from overseas?”

While admittedly a frustration for growing tech companies, it’s also a situation that Microsoft’s Australia arm — which booked a record $2.28 billion in revenue last year — sees as a massive opportunity to boost its bottom line.

On Tuesday the company launched a new Microsoft Technology Centre in Sydney’s CBD to showcase the potential of its products and services — such as its cloud computing platform Azure — and transform local companies by helping train staff in Microsoft-related digital skills.

“It’s about helping them digitally transform as quickly as possible,” said the centre’s director Tyrone Theodorides. “In order to unlock amazing potential for them and their customers.”

The space is not open to the public but young start-up companies can register to use the centre at Microsoft’s ScaleUp accelerator program in the NSW Government’s Sydney StartUp Hub, Mr Theodorides said.

There is a cyber security room, “innovation factory”, “exploratorium” and a room dedicated to showcasing uses for Microsoft’s mixed reality headset, HoloLens.

Basically, it’s designed to be an interactive way to explore how the tech giant’s hardware and software products can improve the operations of Australian customers and boost basic digital skills.

It’s one of roughly 50 other technology centres Microsoft has in the US, Europe and Asia.

MTC specialists and enterprise leaders will work together to map out the most effective route to digital transformation, and how best to bring the vision to life, the company says.

The centre lets Microsoft showcase the potential of cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and mixed reality.

Engagement options include strategy briefings, architecture design sessions, data centre tours, workshops, proof-of-concepts and hackathons.

Microsoft also announced a new partnership with the NSW government to upskill public servants.

While still largely undefined, the partnership will focus on areas of cyber security, digitisation, and the use of data to help drive decisions.

“That’s not something that’s natural to every public servant,” the NSW Government’s Chief Information & Digital Officer Mr Wells said.

“If there were a pool of people (within government) who had been on the front lines and used this technology, we would do a lot better.”

It’s the first partnership of its kind between an Australian state government and Microsoft — which recently overtook Apple to momentarily become the world’s most highly valued company.

But in 2017, the tech giant completed a deal with the federal government to build cloud infrastructure to help modernise how the government handles our data, and pave the way for things like individual digital identities and connected health records.

Steven Worrall, managing director, Microsoft Australia says the tech giant has noticed the skills shortage.

Mr Worrall’s comments about a shortage of tech skills in the Australian workforce come just days after Telstra CEO Andy Penn called on the government to ease restrictions on skilled migrants as the telco looks to hire people in software engineering, data analytics and artificial intelligence.

“The fact is we cannot find in Australia enough of the skills we need on the scale that we need them, particularly in software engineering,” he said at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia event last week.

For the Microsoft boss, the issue is one that goes to the heart of the future prosperity of the country.

“It’s no surprise that someone from the tech industry is going to say that tech is instrumental to the future of our economy,” Mr Worrall said.

“(But) the simple fact is that technology has permeated every facet of the Australian economy.

“It’s a fair bet that investing in technology and building the infrastructure is required to compete on the international stage.”

Originally published as Microsoft launches new Sydney technology centre as it warns on vital skills shortage