Pinpointing the jobs as tech sector goes gangbusters

Southeast Queensland has emerged as the nation’s fastest-growing region for tech employment.

Afterpay co-founder and Tech Council board member Anthony Eisen says he expected to see ‘more tech-based courses and curriculums coming into play’. Picture: Damian Bennett

Southeast Queensland has emerged as the nation’s fastest-growing region for tech employment, with new jobs data revealing there are more software and application programmers in Australia than “plumbers, hairdressers or secondary school teachers”.

An Accenture report commissioned by the Tech Council of Australia shows the industry is now the nation’s seventh-largest employer, with one in 16 Australians working in the sector.

As the federal government ramps-up its focus on cyber-security education in schools, Afterpay co-founder and Tech Council board member Anthony Eisen said he expected to see “more tech-based courses and curriculums coming into play”.

“It’s amazing to see even the change in the last five years in different syllabuses around things like, not just coding, but security and other related applications that are all important,” he said. “These things absolutely work hand-in-hand. But part of it is really, in my view, also just stimulating the job opportunities that exist for people who do courses in this area and in related areas. Focusing hard on … opportunities to get work experience and out of university jobs where prospective employees can touch and feel various aspects of tech-related industries and applications is critical.”

In Britain, technology education has been embedded in schools, with computer programming compulsory and training for teachers being accelerated.

The Tech Council is expected to advocate for a more targeted approach in curriculums to upskill the future tech workforce, after the Morrison government announced a $40m STEM in schools commitment in the May budget.

Mr Eisen said many of the Tech Council’s companies were already focused on technology hubs in different cities and having programs in place for university graduates. “And also focusing hugely on how do you allow people to, obviously not in pandemic times, work globally. Because the experience level of technology-based industries in a lot of ways is more advanced in other countries,” he said.

The Accenture report listed the top 15 fastest-growing regions for ICT professionals, led by southeast Queensland, Melbourne and Sydney. Regional cities including Adelaide and Hobart have also experienced high growth in ICT professionals.

Tech Council chief executive Kate Pounder said jobs growth across the sector would be driven by new opportunities and access to employment.

“Workers in our sector can be found all across the country. Tech workers are most likely to live in western Sydney and Melbourne’s outer suburbs because of their housing affordability, with southeast Queensland actually the fastest growing area for tech jobs,” Ms Pounder said. “This is especially important given the diversity of companies in the tech sector, including 35,200 sole traders, 26,100 businesses with fewer than 20 employees and 100 large firms of 200-plus employees.”

Mr Eisen said “in a lot of ways Australia doesn’t have a talent issue, it is an experience issue”.

“Attracting experienced roles to complement the talent that we have here, I think is really important. And Australia as a region has got so many things going for it in terms of attracting the best and the brightest in the world, not to replace, but enhance.”