NSW government looks to grow digital skills in those not going to university

The New South Wales government is looking for a different approach to ensuring the skills that are required for the future workforce are properly nurtured, focusing on students that don't want to go to university to begin their career.

Speaking with ZDNet while at IBM Think in Sydney on Wednesday, NSW Minister for Skills and Tertiary Education Geoff Lee said that currently, the opportunities for school-leavers are skewed and they aren't favouring those that don't move on to university.

"At the moment when you're a student, our whole system seems to be skewed towards an ATAR and then progression into university, and that's fine for 50% of the people, but we really need to have meaningful opportunities for the 50% that choose not to go to university," he said.

"We need to give them opportunities to say, 'Well I'd like to go into robotics. I'd like to go into AI, I'd like to go into blockchain, but I'd like to do it through a different mechanism'."

An Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) is number between 0.00 and 99.95 that indicates a student's position relative to the students in their age group and is used for university admission.

"50% of students don't go to university ... for the students who choose the VET option, we must break down those barriers," he said.

SEE: Special report: IT jobs in 2020: A leader's guide (free PDF)

According to Lee, the best approach is real-world experience combined with education, be that through a traineeship-like corporate initiative or TAFE, as some examples.

"Different models of pathway programs -- you're not going to just find one pathway programs for all students, you need different pathways for different students because we have such a diversity of students out there," he continued.

"As a government, we graduate and are responsible for the educations of hundreds of thousands of students ... I think the challenge for us as a government and the challenge for industry is how do we actually grow the skill levels for those students not going to university."

The difficulty, Lee said, is that many students are told that university is their only pathway.

"I think as a government, we must say that VET training is a viable option for a meaningful job and a meaningful career," he said.

"In the not too distant future, the NSW government will have a strong and focused look on pathway programs. How better to engage high school students with the VET sector and the higher ed sector to provide a continuous pathway to the development of the individual, because as our world changes we need to adapt and reskill and allow people to upskill."

Lee was at IBM's local conference to thank Big Blue for expanding its Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools (P-TECH) initiative in Australia.

P-TECH is touted by the company as a long-term partnership between industry, schools, and tertiary education providers that enables business to play an active role in the learning and career development of the future workforce.

Lee said it's important for government to acknowledge and encourage initiativeslike P-TECH that help to shrink the skills gap.

"As a government we can't do it alone, so my focus will be on how do we engage industry better to actually deliver the programs -- we're not always the experts in the area and in fact, industry provides those expertise that I think is a great way to teach our students ... whether it's cybersecurity, automation, AI," he continued.

"Industry, government, and the individual students need to work much closer together to deliver the skills that we need for the future."

With a "tech-bro" culture in the workforce and a mentality that technology-related careers are for men only, the minister said what is needed to help counter that is role models for young women to look towards.

SEE: The state of women in computer science: An investigative report [PDF download](TechRepublic cover story)

"It's a cultural shift. There is a need to promote the wonderful role models and the very successful people, so people in school age, in their informative years [are able to see they] can be that person --  there is no ceiling to what I can do," Lee told ZDNet. "So I think it is a whole shift, not only internally within the companies, but in terms of promoting the great work of some really successful role models."

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