VET News

Keeping Up with Digital World Skills

Digital skills proficiency is important to the economy on multiple levels. It can  ensure success for people in the labour market, enable transitions between jobs,  and open new opportunities for Australia to lead in the development of digital  technologies into the future.  

The Digital Skills Organisation have released a paper which provides an analysis of digital skills in the Australian and International  economies using a mix of data sources and analysis techniques. 

The first part of  the analysis addresses key questions about definitions, utilisation, and employer  demand for digital skills across the Australian labour market. 

The second part of  the analysis addresses key questions about how digital engagement in Australia  compares to Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States. We  examine the digital skills sought by employers and the roles that require them  across the five countries.  

The findings suggest the skills needed to respond to the digital world are amongst  the fastest growing in the Australian economy.  Skills clustered around engaging  with the digital economy are expected to increase by up to 28 per cent on current  use levels over the next five years. 

Digital skills are sought by employers  in a diverse range of occupations, with the specialist level of these skills higher for  ICT related occupations. Despite considerable international consistency in the  demand for digital skills such as IT automation, machine learning, artificial  intelligence and the internet of things, the share of job advertisements requiring  cutting edge skills in Singapore outstrips those of the US and Australia.

Read the full publication from the National Skills Commission here.

Date posted Mar 17, 2022