AUSTRALIA has long been known as the Lucky Country and this moniker remains well deserved, despite the global pressures being felt from the US downturn.
However, a strong economy and desirable quality of life are not magically bestowed from the heavens; they are the result of carefully developed policies and practices that are designed to encourage growth and foster creativity.
But our future prospects for growth are currently being threatened by a major shortage of ICT professionals.
New research, conducted for the ACS by the Centre for Innovative Industries Economic Research, predicts the current ICT skills shortage will continue to worsen by 29 per cent each year unless we take decisive action to reverse it.
The ACS commissioned the study in response to market indications that the skills crisis was worsening.
We felt it was important to understand the full extent of the problem and its potential implications for the broader economy in order to enable a more effective decision-making process.
The pervasive nature of ICT and its foundational role in driving productivity in almost every other industry sector over the past 20 years mean we cannot consider the ICT skills shortage in isolation.
ICT has a direct and lasting impact on the performance and growth potential of all other industries, from retail to mining, manufacturing and tourism.
Some industries, like banking and the airlines, could no longer operate profitably without ICT.
The federal Government has previously demonstrated a willingness to take a long-term view in other areas like broadband and the environment.
We need a similar strategy for the ICT skills shortage and are asking Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to give this matter his personal attention.
For Australia as a nation to have any certainty of achieving our growth and prosperity aspirations, we need a substantial and growing pool of skilled ICT professionals to fill the increasing number of vacancies that are constraining ICT projects around the nation.
Moreover, the failure rate of current ICT projects must be reduced.
We need a strategy that simultaneously attracts and retains a larger ICT workforce while improving the capability, ethical behaviour and professionalism of current and future practitioners.
The public should be increasingly concerned that the legal and governance controls that apply to engineers, lawyers and teachers do not exist in ICT.
The CIIER research not only assessed the full extent of the current shortage, but developed employment projections until 2020 using four different scenarios, incorporating the impact of policies around education and migration.
It highlighted the cascading impact of negative perceptions about the dotcom crash on student enrolments, which have fallen by 66 per cent since 2000, while revealing that actual job losses in Australia were short-lived, with the local industry recovering far more quickly than the US ICT sector.
Of the four scenarios modelled in the study, the most likely one of capped migration with education levels being sustained around their current intake shows continued and rapidly growing skills shortages.
The modelling suggested that by 2020, Australia would experience a shortfall of well over 25,000 skills positions which would inevitably lead to a decline in national productivity.
None of the scenarios delivered a significant improvement until at least 2011, with the best outcome predicated on capped migration, reduced brain drain offshore and a substantial increase in the number of people choosing to study ICT.
Given the significant and wide-ranging impact of the skills shortage, we believe a "hands-off" policy approach is no longer a viable option.
The Government does recognise that this is a global challenge, but has yet to develop a national strategy in collaboration with the industry to shore up this vital profession.
The ACS is pleased to make available the results of its research to help inform the decision-making process and is currently working on further research with ICT employers from every industry sector to identify the actual skills and quantities needed in coming years.
This knowledge will allow us to work with the education sector to equip students with in-demand skills and relevant experience to meet the needs of employers.
The recent national ICT Careers Week was one of many examples of the ICT profession doing its part to deliver the skilled resources Australia needs to prosper and grow, but we cannot do it alone.
We are calling for a whole of government approach to ICT to ensure our national future prosperity and look forward to working with the Rudd administration to achieve this objective.
Kumar Parakala is ACS national president and global chief operating officer of KPMG's IT advisory practice. See www.acs.org.au for more information
This article from: