Published on the 29/08/2023 | Written by Heather Wright

Breaking down barriers to build tech workforce…

Businesses are ‘filtering out’ high potential IT candidates through their desire for university degree candidates according to a new report which is calling for Australian businesses to hire 20 percent of early-career tech workers through ‘alternative’ pathways by 2030.

The Accenture report, commissioned by Microsoft, says 90 percent of ads for Stem roles require a bachelor’s degree or higher qualification, overlooking historically under-represented groups such as women, people with disability and First Nations people, who are under-represented in Stem degrees.  

It comes as Australia and New Zealand continue to grapple with the tech talent gap. In Australia for every tech job lost in the direct tech industry in the past three months, 20 new jobs have been created by the indirect industry, Break Down the Barriers notes.

“It’s a strategy proven to yield significant economic and social returns.”

Across in New Zealand, recruitment company Hays’ 2023/24 Salary Guide: IT Edition, says 98 percent of IT employers are experiencing a skills shortage as shortages continue to plague the sector. The Tech Alliance New Zealand Digital Skills Survey, released earlier this month also found that 97 percent of Kiwi organisations surveyed reported ongoing recruitment challenges, and 96 percent expect the talent shortage to impact operations this year. 

“Removing barriers could unlock a potential pool of 1.1 million workers,” the Break Down the Barriers says of the Australian situation. 

“Over one million workers from historically underrepresented groups are ready to start a new job or increase their hours. That is 10x more people than we need to fill the current talent gap identified by the Tech Council of Australia,” the report says.  

Under business-as-usual conditions, the TCA has forecast the sector to require an additional 186,000 people to meet the Australian government target of filling 1.2 million tech related jobs by 2030. 

Break Down the Barriers is urging organisations move towards a skills-based economy, where aptitude, skills and potential matter more than university degrees, pedigree, company history or references, saying the skills required to drive business are continually changing, the shelf life of skills is shortening and alternative pathways provide a means to tap into the broader talent pool whose skills have been developed through alternative methods. 

Those alternative methods include vocational training, micro credentials, vendor courses, bootcamps, traineeships, apprenticeships and cadetships and ‘recruit, train, deploy’ initiatives which provide upskilling training then placement of talent into an open role.  

Those pathways would move Australia more in line with global counterparts, the report argues, noting that US and Canadian labour statistics show two in five tech jobs don’t require a bachelors degree, while in Switzerland, two in three pupils opt for apprenticeships, including in high-tech industries.  

Moving people from adjacent roles is also listed as an alternative pathway for companies to explore.  

“We have a real opportunity to make a difference,” says Tenielle Colussi, Accenture Australia managing director of talent and organisation and one of the report authors. 

“Gone are the days when candidates need a degree to be considered for a role.” 

The report claims some big benefits for companies who bring in people from more diverse backgrounds, including increasing worker productivity by 14 percent, saving $800,000 from improved retention and growing annual revenue by $2.3 million for a 100-employee company with $30m in annual sales.  

Across wider society, the benefits translate to $550 million additional renumeration in new tech workers pockets, 2,000 previously unemployed workers moving into employment and an additional $250 million in tax revenue for the government. 

Other benefits, for both the worker and the business, include speed to competency, with new programs delivering technical ‘role-ready’ talent in eight weeks, and practical integrated learning providing accelerated skilling with practical application and experiences. 

Steven Worrall, Microsoft Australia and New Zealand managing director, says the report highlights the incredible opportunity that remains untapped in the workforce and how Australia and its economy can benefit from making the tech industry more accessible and inclusive. 

“This isn’t just about corporate responsibility – it’s a strategy proven to yield significant economic and social returns,” Worrall says.  

But the issue of harnessing alternative pathways, while sounding simple, can prove anything but.  

It’s a tactic New Zealand is also exploring. The Digital Skills Aotearoa report, released in 2021, called for urgent action to resolve what it called a digital skills mismatch impacting the growth of New Zealand’s economy. It noted a clear discrepancy between what the education sector was providing and what the tech ecosystem needs.  

It too, pointed to diversity as a lever to reduce the skills issues, the development of digital apprenticeship pathways and funding of specialisations across ICT grad schools.  

Three years on from an earlier report on digital skills, however, it found decreasing participation in digital technology in education, and a less diverse workforce.  

The Digital Tech Industry Transformation Plan, similarly, has also called for New Zealanders from a wider variety of backgrounds to be harnessed. 

The Digital ITP received a $27 million funding injection in Budget 2023 to advance skills and talent activities.  

Break Down the Barriers notes that collective action is required from organisations, Australia’s tech industry, government, education providers and not-for-profits.  

For organisations that includes a change in mindset, removing the bias and lack of knowledge that often accompanies suggestions of investing in alternative pathways. Learning to assess based on skills, rather than qualifications can be a challenge for HR teams to overcome. 

The report advocates four actions organisations will need to take to enable the use and scaling of alternative pathways, starting with creating a clear vision and mandate to use alternative pathways. 

Implementing skills based and inclusive hiring practices to open the doors to more talent, investing in training to become ‘talent creators’ of future skills and building experiences and leaders that retain and promote employees from all backgrounds are also included, depending on where they are on the journey already. 

The report includes readiness checklists for organisations looking for the basics, ready to pilot, and those ready to scale skills-based hiring and development.