Tech Council CEO calls for shift in policy settings

Technology Council of Australia CEO Kate Pounder has urged the federal government to be more ambitious in policy settings aimed at bringing additional women into the workforce, to ensure more women take leadership roles in emerging industries such as information and communications technology (ICT).

Speaking with Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN) Executive Director Luke Sheehy on the ATN Perspectives podcast, Pounder said Australia should have more women in “high-paid, meaningful, fast-growing future jobs and industries and to have them at the helm of companies”.

“We see only about a quarter of people working in tech jobs are female in Australia — I think there is still an opportunity there to work with the government to expand our view of what participation can mean for women and perhaps have a slightly more ambitious view again. But I definitely think it is a government that is listening, such as through the establishment of the Women’s Equality Taskforce; I think that will be an important piece of work,” Pounder said.

There are an estimated 860,000 people working in tech jobs across Australia. Pounder told Sheehy that ICT provides some of the most high-paid and secure jobs.

“It is more common for an Australian today to be a software engineer or a developer than it is for them to be a hairdresser or a plumber or solicitor,” she said.

“We need another 650,000 to come into the sector in the next seven years to fill those jobs.”

She said the key target areas will be:

• 80,000 graduates from university or VET joining tech as their first job
• 70,000 workers as a result of skilled migration; and
• 300,000 through reskilling and switching careers.
   

“Innovation and the university sector is a really critical piece in helping more Australians train to get into these future jobs and fast-growing jobs,” Pounder said.

“I think those industry linkages around the training system will be vital, both to help think through ‘what is the best curriculum and what are the kind of skills that, if they are taught at university, will better support people to go into jobs?’ I think more integrated learning will become really important.”

She said that universities will start to play “accreditation roles, particularly where people have got prior skills they have picked up through work”.

“Two-thirds of the people doing an ICT degree in Australia are international students. There is a great opportunity for those who want to stay to try and make better use of their great knowledge and skills that they bring to Australia and to create better pathways for them to work post study,” she said.

The full podcast is available on Spotify, Apple, Google or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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