Priority 4: Collaborative and strategic leadership

The Digital Professional Workforce Action Plan will provide collaborative and strategic leadership to ensure Queensland has a workforce of cutting-edge digital professionals to meet the needs of the labour market, enable businesses to remain competitive, and take advance of new opportunities offered by the digital economy.

Current state

Positioning Queenslanders to have cutting edge digital skills in a period of rapid technological advancement is crucial for Queensland’s economic and social prosperity. Queensland’s key industry sectors, including digital, commerce, mining, construction, agriculture, food and beverage, finance, science and education, all share concerns about the supply of adequately skilled and job-ready digital professionals. Consultation revealed that without clear leadership and a collaborative approach to skilling up Queenslanders, we will not be able to supply business and industry with the workforce they need to be competitive here and abroad. Ultimately this impacts on Queensland’s job growth, industry growth and future development.

Queensland small businesses and community organisations are feeling less confident about their digital readiness than they were prior to the pandemic. Potentially, this is attributable to their confidence in understanding the application of new and emerging technology and capability.

Future state

The Queensland Government, digital industry, education and training providers will have a coordinated approach to digital skill development. This will ensure that Queensland produces and maintains a workforce of digital professionals that meets the needs of industry and businesses.

Small to medium businesses benefit from adoption of the latest technology, thereby improving their productivity and access to new ventures and markets.

Actions

• Promote collaboration across business, academia, and government through a new digital professional skills roundtable. This will ensure we have the strategic thought leadership in place to identify in-demand and future demand digital professional skills for Queensland and that we are designing curriculum which will deliver job-ready digital professionals.
• Promote Queensland as a digital leader by working with industry to elevate Queensland’s digital awards to recognise the contribution of digital professionals and their businesses who are growing Queensland’s digital economy.
• Develop a 'partner affiliation' program to enable two-way communication between training and education providers and government. By affiliating, education providers will be able to connect with government and advise of any barriers or issues impeding increased intakes for digital courses and credentials. In addition, they will also be able to access contemporary technical skills advice from specialists from the digital and ICT industry to continually enhance their curriculum. This will also allow government to track the success of this plan through reporting on successful course completions.
• Support Queensland’s small to medium businesses and community organisations to embrace digital transformation by investing in the reskilling and upskilling of their workforce to uplift the digital capability of their businesses.

Our metrics

• Increased digital capability of small to medium businesses in Queensland through access to digital professionals that meet their needs.
• Increased digital capability of community organisations in Queensland.

Success looks like

• A thriving digital professional workforce in Queensland.
• Cutting edge curriculum in our learning organisations.

Case study: Regional Cyber Security

Active engagement in digital technologies is being experienced in rural and remote communities enhancing opportunities for increased diversity in the uptake of digital professional pathways. New emerging technologies are enhancing opportunities for prosperity, preservation of culture, and economic independence. RIoT Solutions mature-aged, Indigenous, Security Engineer, Kirsty Lee Michael is currently in the final stages of her Bachelor of Science degree in Cyber Security. Kristy secured the role with RIot Solutions through a 3 month work-integrated internship as part of her degree.

As a proud Townsville resident, Kristy would like cyber and other digital professions promoted as a career option, particularly in the regions.

She credits her success in securing her role to two things: a love of Information and Communication Technology and the Edith Cowan University (ECU) providing a flexible online course. This study option allowed her, as a primary care giver, to remain in her home town to study a degree she is passionate about. Kirsty is also able to work from Townsville and remotely service RIoT clients across Australia. Kristy was awarded the Lockheed Martin Australia (LMA) Indigenous Student in Computing and Security Award at ECU, in 2020. Her ultimate career goal is becoming a certified penetration tester.