Training pipeline open for business

Business is being invited to take a hand in training the talent of the future, with help from the State Government’s Skilling South Australia initiative

SKILLS - Yankalilla Council Trainee Jake Harris with Council CEO Andy Baker

Business is being invited to take a hand in training the talent of the future, with help from the State Government’s Skilling South Australia initiative

CREATING a pipeline of information technology talent to keep up with the ever-evolving IT needs of South Australian businesses is the aim of a new traineeship program by Microsoft Australia with State Government assistance.

And businesses are being asked to play a role in growing and nurturing that talent by taking part in the Microsoft Traineeship Program.

The program involves providing 40 people in SA with two-year traineeships that combine on-the-job, paid work experience with a Certificate IV in Information Technology and a Microsoft Azure Certification delivered through TAFE SA.

Beth Worrall, National Skills Program Lead for Microsoft, says the company is keen to encourage as many people as possible into a career in computer science, with the Australian Computer Society estimating there may be about 80,000 jobs that cannot be filled in 2023. “We hear all the time from both customers and partners that they have lots of jobs that they can’t fill because there aren’t enough people studying in those areas at university,” she says. “So we are looking at ways that we can both encourage people into IT careers but also increase the diversity of the IT workforce.”

The program was launched successfully in New South Wales in late 2018, leading to a push to expand it here from September, with $200,000 Skilling South Australia funding. Delivery partners include TAFE SA, Prodigy Learning and group training provider MEGT.“In scaling out to SA, we’ve been working really closely with the TAFE here to incorporate the Microsoft Azure certification into the qualification,” Worrall says. “This is really important ... because we know our customers and partners are looking for graduates with the latest IT knowledge.”

Worrall says Microsoft would love to hear from any company interested in taking on technology trainees, with DXC Technology, Compnow, Datacom and HCL already signed on in SA.

Cian Zoller, DXC Technology Human Resources Director in Australia and New Zealand, says the IT services company agreed to come on board after experiencing a shortage of people with Azure skills – Azure is a set of cloud services. “The conversation started around how we would tackle the shortage,” Zoller says. “A good third of our employees are based in SA ... That’s where we are looking to expand.

Under the program, MEGT will advertise for and do an initial assessment of candidates, with partner businesses like DXC selecting preferred trainees. Trainees are employed by MEGT, which oversees the trainees, providing mentoring and support, as well as assistance to businesses.

DXC expects to choose four to six trainees in the first round and expand those numbers if the program works as expected.

David Pisoni, Minister for Innovation and Skills, says: “It is critical for our state’s future economic success that our workforce is suitably skilled to meet industry needs – particularly at a time of unprecedented opportunity in sectors such as space, cyber security and defence.“IT companies in SA and nationally are experiencing increased demand for information technology roles at the higher skill level, and introducing a simple, statewide program for IT businesses to access trainees will encourage longer term use of this career pathway”.

Visit megt.com.au/microsoft-traineeship-program

HOW TRAINING STACKS UP

AS South Australian Training Advocate, Renee Hindmarsh, pictured, has a lot on her plate.“If I had to explain it in one sentence, I would say: It’s a one-stop shop for anyone wanting to know about or requiring assistance with the post-secondary training system,” says Hindmarsh, who came to the role in February.

“I would say I am SA’s champion for post-secondary training and skills development. We look at everything from vocational education, apprenticeships and traineeships, adult community education and higher education.”

Hindmarsh says her work is aimed at ensuring the state’s training system will deliver the skills needed for the future under the Skilling South Australia initiative.

Skilling South Australia is part of broad State Government reforms to rebuild the training system, which includes listening to the needs of industry and being ready to take advantage of opportunities in growth industries.

“I’d like to see SA as a place where human capital is our competitive advantage and where we create a local, highly-skilled workforce,” she says. “But it’s also a place where people from Australia and the region want to come because of jobs that have been created, either in things like space or the start-up economy, defence or agriculture and viticulture.”

Hindmarsh works with stakeholders and the Training and Skills Commission.

She says an ongoing review of the Training and Skills Development Act creates the opportunity to consider what the state’s training system might look like in the future. “Some of the things that are coming through clearly are that people want flexibility in the system,” Hindmarsh says. “Could we have shorter, more flexible, stackable credentials – things like micro credentials – that can potentially form a larger qualification over time, be more modularised?”

Such flexibility would benefit people already in the workforce and looking to upskill, change career tracks or who haven’t studied for a while. “It wouldn’t be that micro credentials replace traditional learning, but it’s really attractive to those people who are challenged with time and don’t have the capacity to invest in a two-year full-time degree,” she says.

Flexibility would also help give people access to lifelong learning, which is key to keeping the workforce well skilled as industry and technology rapidly evolves, she says.

Industry input into updating and designing training programs is also on the rise, to ensure graduates have relevant skills. The ongoing issue, she says, is the transition from a traditional manufacturing base to the state’s “new strengths in things like defence, wine industry and space industry, which is really exciting”. “If we as policy makers and advocates are aware of the opportunities and ... get ahead of them ... that’s good,” she adds.

Visit trainingadvocate. sa.gov.au

PAVING THE HIGHWAY TO BETTER SKILLS

SA’s civil construction sector has received a major boost this month after Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni and the Training and Skills Commission gave the green light to two new apprenticeships.

The Minister says the conversion of two traineeships into civil construction apprenticeships will help ensure the skills necessary to implement the State Government’s investment in infrastructure.

Training and Skills Commission Chair Michael Boyce says the Commission works hard to achieve results for industry and for the community. “The revitalisation of the Training and Skills Commission includes the re-establishment of eight Industry Skills Councils, which are providing direct input into workforce policy, and developing strong links with business and regional industry stakeholders,” Boyce says.

Civil Contractors Federation (CCF) chief executive Phillip Sutherland says the new apprenticeships will be the first created in the domain of civil construction.

He says converting the Certificate IIIs in Civil Construction and in Civil Construction Plant Operations into apprenticeship programs will help supply the industry with more skilled workers and provide better career pathways into the sector.

“This is a defining moment for us,” Sutherland says. “It certainly will offer an attractive, paid training and employment pathway to school leavers and others. “Parents of kids in school would see an apprenticeship as more stable, with more opportunities for jobs than just a traineeship.

“We anticipate that we will see more people coming from school into the industry, which is really important to us because there is something of a skills shortage.”Sutherland says large road projects and other civil engineering projects in the state will supply a pipeline of work for the next 10 to 20 years, “so we are going to need all the available people”.

He says the industry has relied on labour hire programs to fill the gaps but apprentices would come to their roles showing a commitment to the industry and with appropriate qualifications and experience.

Visit skills.sa.gov.au

COUNCILS KEEP IT CIVIL

Fleurieu and Hills councils are helping local people gain employment as civil construction apprentices, through a new program being funded under the State Government’s Skilling South Australia initiative.

Led by the District Council of Yankalilla, Alexandrina Council, Mount Barker District Council, the City of Victor Harbor and the City of Onkaparinga are working together to host 10 apprentices.

Yankalilla chief operating officer Andy Baker says the council has shown the way by taking on several trainees in recent years to test the benefits of such a scheme. “The District Council of Yankalilla is the biggest employer in the region,” Baker says. “We should be making every effort to give our young community members access to a local working environment.“There was a shortage of people signing on but also where they’d sign on and say ‘this isn’t for me’. We wanted to let them understand what we would be expecting of them from that particular role.”

The latest iteration of the program will see 10 apprentices taken on by group training organisation Maxima, in partnership with TAFE SA, using a $67,000 investment by the State Government. Maxima employs the trainees, the Government pays for their training and the councils pay the wages.

Originally published as Training pipeline open for business