AIIA backs PM's economic recovery roadmap

The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) has thrown its support behind Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s economic roadmap to recovery.

The industry body praised the Prime Minister’s approach to focusing on skills and training as a key aspect of his JobMaker policy plan.

AIIA CEO Ron Gauci said Morrison has placed a particular focus on digital technologies as one of the main pilots for the initiative.

Gauci agreed that there is a need or a greater relationship between skills needed to fulfil a role in the workplace and Australia’s educational systems, with industries defining the qualifications needed in their future workforce.

“In order to protect jobs of the future there must be greater alignment with the digital industry,” Gauci said.

“Reskilling the IT workforce through investment, planning and greater education will not only benefit businesses and organisations requiring these services, but also encourage skilled jobs in Australia to flourish. I am encouraged by the Prime Minister’s plan for the labour market and the VET sector to support the economy post-COVID.”

The AIIA has also agreed with the government that reskilling entrenched workers and upskilling those in existing jobs to adapt to the digital economy will be critical to Australia’s economic recovery.

“The pandemic has also highlighted the need for sovereign capabilities in the digital supply chain. Australia must have the skills and innovation ecosystem to support a globally competitive economy as this step change into digital transformation occurs,” Gauci said.

“We are seeing current industry demand for digital skills around cybersecurity, cloud, applications development, AI, big data and analytics.”

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