The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) has launched the AIIA Skills Hub, designed to boost the Australian ICT industry.

The hub was created as a digital skills platform to connect ICT training needs of industry and employees with VET, tertiary and industry digital courses.

According to the AIIA, Australia has long had a digital skills gap and the Skills Hub seeks to fill that gap by mapping employee skills to career pathways and relevant training courses.

According to the company, the hub will also provide digital badging for micro credentialing courses and repository for digital badges and accreditation.

A growing repository of courses

Initially, the AIIA Skills Hub, created based on the SkillsLogiQ platform, supports two AIIA industry and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) co-designed micro-credentialing courses on cyber security and innovation in IT.

However, it will also provide a central place where any VET or tertiary courses can be plugged in to the Hub and employees can map their skills gap to identify appropriate courses to meet their future career needs, AIIA states.

Tertiary organisations, such as QUT will provide high quality short courses, while industry experts, such as Microsoft, LinkedIn and GITHub will prvide ICT specialist training.

At present, the AIIA Skills Hub is home to courses from QUT, CQU, QLD TAFE, and Microsoft.

All courses are built out with AIIA educational institutional members and are mapped against the global Skills Frameworks for the Information Age (SFIA), an industry skills framework used by major Australian digital employers, AIIA states.

Individuals will be able to create a Skills Passport to map and manage their skills for career development.

According to AIIA, the program will help individuals plan skills development and career pathways and provide a learning academy to support ongoing career development.

Responding to a need

Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash, says digital skills are in high demand across the country and will form an essential part of Australia's future economy.

Cash says, "The Morrison Government is committed to upskilling and reskilling Australians as we come out of COVID-19, with a record investment of almost $7 billion in vocational education and training this year.

"The launch of the AIIA Skills Hub is a great example of industry partnering with quality training providers to grow Australia's ICT skills capabilities and the skills necessary for a modern digital economy."

AIIA CEO Ron Gauci says, “We're proud to provide further opportunities for AIIA members to develop their skills and continue to be highly valued employees across industries.

"Working with QUT and the SkillsLogiQ platform, the AIIA has been able to deliver a great platform for our members that will provide additional capability to grow skills and ensure Australia's ICT workers will continue to be world class."

Gauci says, “Through this initiative, the AIIA is encouraging the growth of strong domestic skills and innovation ecosystem to support a globally competitive economy while the step change to digital transformation occurs.

"In a post-COVID-19 economy, we know that strong skills in the ICT sector will continue to be highly sought after by employers.

"We've seen during the COVID-19 pandemic the adoption of digital services expand at a rate that was expected to take many years. These are changes that will be permanent and will shape the Australian economy for years to come.

The AIIA is a not-for-profit organisation aimed at fuelling Australia's future social and economic prosperity through technology innovation.