Environment Scan 2014
Contents
This Escan provides Innovation and Business Skills Australia (IBSA) with an opportunity to combine direct industry intelligence with statistical data on training and workforce participation. Through this process, skill needs and workforce development priorities are identified for Australia’s innovation and business industries. The information is used by IBSA to advice government on refinements to training packages to meet the needs of industry and identify investment priorities for Australia’s vocational education and training (VET) system.
This is the sixth year in which Industry Skills Councils (ISCs) have been required to prepare an Escan. The Escan aims to give readers an understanding of the factors currently shaping and impacting on the IBSA industries and their workforce development, IBSA’s industry coverage comprises enabling skills and functions that are relevant across a wide range of industries. The Escan is consequently an important contribution to thinking on skills and workforce development across the board and will be of interest to many readers within government and industry
About this
Environment Scan
DATA NOTE: there is extensive data underpinning the commentary in this Escan some of which has been consolidated into Appendix D; Tables and Figures from Appendix D are referred to in the order to which they are referenced in the text of the Escan and in the following format – Table or Figure App D 3. etc
Executive summary
2
Industry intelligence
4
Identified workforce development needs
16
Current impact of training packages
20
Future directions
30
Appendix A Methodology and bibliography
32
Appendix B ICT occupations in demand
36
Appendix C NCVER data
40
ICT industry February 2013
Telecoms and ISPs 96.551
Software and services 177.705
Wholesale and retail trade 21.192
Manufacture 1.800
Total 297.248
Source: CIIER Research Inc., 2013.
Table App D4.4: ICT industry employment February 2013
Figure App D4.3: Women in ICT occupations (%) compared to women in all occupations (%)
Female % of this Industry Division Female % of ICT Occupations
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0%
Telecoms and ISPS
Software and Ser
vices ICT Industr y T otal A Agriculture, Forestr y and Fishing B Mining C Manufacturing D Electricity , Gas, W ater and W aste Ser vices E Construction F Wholesale T rade G Retail T rade
H Accommodation and Food Ser
vices
I T
ranspor
t, Postal and W
arehousing
Rest DIVISION J (Radio, TV
, newspapers and libraries
K Financial and Insurance Ser
vices
L Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Ser
vices
Rest DIVISION M (Professional Ser
vices, excluding ICT)
N Administrative and Suppor
t Ser
vices
O Public Administration and Safety
P Education and T
raining
Q Health Care and Social Assistance
R Ar
ts and Recreation Ser
vices
S Other Ser
vices
The number of ICT workers across all industries has increased by almost 10 percent over the previous twelve months to 597,700 in February 2013, and the number of workers in the ICT industry has increased by 2 percent to 297,000 for the same period.3 Recent increases in the number of enrolments and apprenticeships and traineeships in ICA Information and Communications Technology and ICT Integrated Telecommunications Training Packages is encouraging given the increase in workers and trend forecasts. Extensive work has been invested by IBSA in the development of new units of competency, skill sets and qualifications associated with cloud computing conceptualisation, big data and virtualisation technologies, and NBN infrastructure and maintenance.
Executive summary
Across our economy and society, Information & Communications
Technology (ICT) is driving innovation and productivity. The way people
in societies across the globe communicate, conduct business, learn,
shop, keep informed and consume entertainment continues to change.
1 AWPA, 2013, ICT Workforce Study, Letter to the Minister.
2 IDC, 2012, Skills in the Workplace Forum, Parliament House, November 2012
3 Data provided in this report are obtained from a number of authoritative sources that do not use uniform reporting of statistics; this may lead to some inconsistencies in this report. Across our economy and society,
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is driving innovation and productivity. The way people in societies across the globe communicate, conduct business, learn, shop, keep informed and consume entertainment continues to change. Growth in network computing coupled with improvements in mobility mean that people can access content whenever they need it wherever they are. This is no longer a desire but an expectation.
From the productivity benefits of cloud computing, to the transformative impact of mobile telephony and tablet devices, businesses across every industry sector are utilising ICT to streamline business processes, improve service offerings and simplify operations. The rollout of the National Broadband Network
(NBN) will facilitate and strengthen these activities and ICT-savvy businesses will increasingly look to emerging Asian economies for the provision of niche ICT services.1
Major drivers for new applications in 2013 are expected to be mobility and social applications to meet business requirements. These new applications would not be viable without cloud infrastructure as the underlying deployment model. Analytics and big data, ie analysis of very large volumes of structured and unstructured data such as voice and video, will act as both a driver, as it will consume cloud services, and as an enabler, as it will be the tool with which value is extracted from the enormous amounts of data collected by the new applications held in the enterprise.2
Workforce development needs exist in both the ICT industry and the wider community to ensure the benefits provided by new technology and a digital economy are reaped by all. In the short to medium term the following workforce issues will need to be addressed:
■ reframing the ICT industry and careers to better promote current and future work
■ encouraging technical and professional development of the existing workforce to enable the development and deployment of new technologies and techniques
■ maintaining rigour of assessment in VET ICA and ICT qualifications to provide confidence to the industry of the quality and employability of VET students
■ engaging the ICT industry in curriculum design and delivery, and workplace learning to enhance student learning experiences and improve retention and completion rates
■ provision of adequate supply of skills for major national projects including the NBN
■ maximising new workplace
arrangements and business models that invest in workforce development, and ■ consistent and continuous review of
skill sets to address specialist skill requirements for today’s workforce.
Industry intelligence
The Information
and Communications
Technology Industry
The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Industry is
comprised of organisations engaged primarily in providing computer and
telecommunications services, as well as hardware sales and service. ICT services and professional and technical skills are integral to banking, health care, telecommunications, education, transport, resource exploration, manufacturing, tourism, primary and mineral production, security and the sustainable environment.
The ICT industry includes the production, distribution and maintenance of
goods and services, such as computer hardware and software, and the
development and provision of specialised computer and telecommunications services to enable globally networked communications. Cisco forecasts that, globally, there will be 10 billion
The Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
Industry is comprised of organisations engaged primarily
in providing computer and telecommunications services,
as well as hardware sales and service.
Figure: 1: ICT annual contribution to GDP $m
ICT Industry (45% of Div J, 19% of Div M, + retail, wholesale, maufacture $9,637 A Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, $18 B Mining $904 C Manufacturing $602
D Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services $624
E Construction $448
F Wholesale Trade $811
G Retail Trade $298
H Accommodation and food Services $30
I Transport Postal and Warehousing $476
K Financial and Insurance Services $3073
J (part) TV, Radio, Print media and libraries $364
L Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services $139
M (part) Professional services excluding ICT $2,023
N Administrative and Support Services $178
O Public Administration and Safety $1,350 P Education and Training $368
Q Health Care and Social Assistance $242
R Arts and Recreation Services $75
S Other Services $206
4 Cisco, 2013, Visual Network Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012–2017. 5 IBISWorld, 2012, A Snapshot of Australia Digital Future to 2050.
6 IBISWorld, 2012, A Snapshot of Australia Digital Future to 2050
7 Ibid.
8 Gartner Inc., 2012, Gartner Says Consumer-Facing Industries will Drive IT Investment in Australian in the Next Five Years, Press release (19 November).
networked devices in 2017, exceeding the world’s population.4
Aided by increasing high speed broadband and networked online information, the Australian ICT industry was expected to deliver revenue of $131 billion in 2012. By 2050, this new utility is expected to generate around $1 trillion in revenue. Reports indicate that for every ten-percentage-point increase in broadband penetration,
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increases by 1 percent and doubling an economy’s broadband speed increases GDP by 0.3 percent.5 Figure 1 illustrates the significance of the ICT industry to Australia’s GDP. The ICT industry has been, and continues to be, a key driver of productivity growth and is therefore crucial to the Australia’s recent economic prosperity.
By 2050, Australia’s GDP is expected to have grown from $1.4 trillion in 2011
to $5.3 trillion, with service industries increasing their dominance in the composition of GDP.6 IBISWorld predicts that 13 out of Australia’s 19 industry sectors will derive significant benefits from ICT.7 An estimated 5 percent increase in enterprise IT spending is expected in Australia, from $69 million in 2012 to $73 million in 2013.8. Figure 2 shows the predicted change in contribution to GDP by Australia’s main industries.
Figure 2: Importance of industries, the changing mix 2011 and 2050
Source: IBISWorld, 2012, A Snapshot of Australia Digital Future to 2050.
GDP $trillion (2012 prices) Agriculture Mining Manufacturing Utilities Constuction Wholesale Trade Retail Trade Transport and Postal
Media & Telecom Financial & Insurance Rental & Real Estate Prof & Tech. Services Adm. & Support Serv Public Adm. & Safety Education & Training Dwelling Ownership Ind taxes et al
Accomn. & Food Serv Health Care & Social Assist Art & Recreation Serv. Personal & Other Serv
Primary Secondary Tertiary Quaternary Quinary 100 80 60 40 20 0 Percent 2011 2050 (F)
Gartner9 predicts the following top ten technology trends for 2014:
■ mobile device diversity and management including bring your own device (BYOD) ■ mobile apps and applications –
smaller more targeted applications, or ‘apps’, to grow while larger, more comprehensive applications to shrink ■ ‘software defined anything’ – better
interoperability standards ■ smart machines
■ 3-D printing
■ the internet of everything – expansion beyond PCs to and mobile devices into enterprise assets, such as field equipment, and consumer items, such as cars and televisions
■ hybrid cloud and IT as service broker ■ cloud/client architecture
■ the era of personal cloud, and ■ web-scale IT.
A selection of these technology trends is elaborated on later in this Escan. The June 2013 ABS report Internet Activity is summarised below. It provides strong evidence on the increasing role of communications in Australian business and society:
■ At 30 June 2013, there were 6.2 million mobile wireless broadband connections in Australia, an increase of 2 percent since the end of December 2012, with fibre the fastest growing type of internet access connection in percentage terms, increasing by 26 percent since the end of December 2012.
■ Household subscribers accounted for 78 percent of the 12.4 million internet subscribers at the end of June 2013, while the remainder were business and government subscribers. ■ The proportion of internet subscribers
with access via dialup connection was 2 percent in June 2013, compared with 8 percent in June 2010. Note that
dialup is still prevalent in the Northern Territory and in some regional areas. The proportion of connections that were DSL decreased to 39 percent in June 2013 from 44 percent in June 2010, and subscribers with connection via mobile wireless broadband increased to 50 percent of all connections in June 2013, from 36 percent in June 2010.
■The overall volume of data downloaded in the three months to 30 June 2013 increased by 18 percent to 657,262 terabytes, compared with the three months to 31 December 2012.
■Data downloaded by fixed-line broadband accounted for 96 percent of all internet downloads in the three months to 30 June 2013, an increase of 30 percent compared with the three months to 31 December 2012. ■At 30 June 2013, there were
19.6 million subscribers with internet access via a mobile handset
9 M. Cooney, 2013, ‘Gartner: The Top 10 IT Altering Predictions for 2014’, Networkworld.
Figure 3: Proportion of business with internet access by employment size, 2009–10 to 2011–12
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Summary Use of IT Use and Innovation in Australian Business, cat. no. 8166.0, 2011–12. 100% 95 90 85 Persons employed 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12
connection in Australia, an increase of 13 percent from the end of December 2012, equating to 0.3 GB of data downloaded per subscriber per month. ■ The volume of data downloaded via
mobile handsets for the three months to 30 June 2013 was 19,636 terabytes, a 43 percent increase from the three months to 31 December 2012.10
■ Business use of the internet continues to grow with:
■ 55 percent of businesses placing orders using the internet, a growth of 4 percent between 2010–11 and 2011–12
■ the value of income from the sale of goods or services via the internet increasing by 25 percent from $189 billion in 2010–11 to $237 million in 2011–12
■ nine in ten businesses having internet access as at 30 June 2012, with the likelihood of internet access increasing the larger the size of the business – see Figure 3, and ■ 45 percent of Australian businesses
reporting a web presence as at 30 June 2012, with the likelihood of web presence increasing the larger the size of the business.11
Despite small business doubling its take up of internet access in the 2009–12 period, it continues to significantly lag behind its counterparts with more employees.
Although increased demand for communications has firmly embedded telecommunications in Australian business, forecasts indicate slight growth in the sector. Significant variations exist across the sector, largely a result of the intense competition, which has seen growth in one sector, such as mobile communications, at the expense of another, namely, wired communications. Mergers and acquisitions have already underpinned some productivity gains and have eased labour demand with employee numbers often reduced to maintain margins. IBISWorld forecasts that sector revenue will return to growth, albeit modestly, in the coming five years to increase at an annualised rate of 0.5 percent to reach $44.1 billion in 2017-18.12
The major trends shaping business in the telecommunications sector also place it at the heart of societal and economic change. Key trends include:
■ exponential growth in connectivity, requiring different network design and configurations and business models ■ increase in demand for bandwidth across fixed and mobile networks driving innovation to stay ahead of the demand curve
■ changing consumer behaviour and increased expectations
■ smarter networks and improved user interfaces, such as Suri and Google Now, allowing technology to be used more simply and by more people
■ new network dependent, innovative applications driving network usage and creating new opportunities ■ data analytics to improve the
customer experience, and
■ the Asian Century, which presents a huge market opportunity.13
■ In addressing these trends, skills will be required in network design and optimisation, business modelling, innovation, customer service, data analytics and business development. Three technologies are expected to be critical in the future for the telecommunications sector. They include mobile internet, cloud solutions, and the Machine to Machine (M2M), also referred to as ‘Internet of Things’, where everything communicates and is expected to transform every single sector of society and the economy.14 Mobile internet continues as the most rapidly growing form of telecommunications technology, and continuing investments in 4G networks and the rollout and transition to the NBN promise to drive mobile even more deeply through our economy and society.15 More than 50 percent of mobile data traffic is now via smartphones and 10 percent via tablets. Global mobile data traffic is predicted to grow thirteen fold by 2017 and mobile video to consume more than two thirds of mobile data traffic by 2017.16
10 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013, Internet Activity, Australia, cat. no. 8153.0, June 2013.
11 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013, Summary Use of IT Use and Innovation in Australian Business, cat. no. 8166.0, 2011–12.
12 IBISWorld, 2013, Industry Report J5800: Telecommunications Services in Australia, March 2013.
13 Telstra, 2013, Telstra Refines Strategy, Realigns Key Business Units. Media Release, 23 October 2013.
14 Ibid.
15 Deloitte Access Economics, 2013, Mobile Nation: The Economic and Social Impacts of Mobile Technology, February 2013.
17 Ibid. 18 Ibid.
19 IBISWorld, 2012, Industry Report J5420: Software Publishing in Australia, December 2012.
firms also employ many ICT non-professional technical, sales, logistical and administrative staff.
Therefore, ICT employment includes: ■ providers of ICT goods and services –
usually called the ICT industry ■ the purchasers and users of ICT
goods and services, including the government and private sectors, which also employ a large number of specialists to help them apply their ICT purchases
■ the trainers, teachers and researchers into ICT who generally, but not always, operate within the universities and colleges
■ people who provide technical support to ICT but who might, more properly, be categorised as electrical or electronics specialists, and
■ people working in ICT industry call centres, or in desktop publishing and graphics design.
Statistical tables highlighting key themes are used throughout this Escan; however, more detailed material is provided in Appendix D and on the IBSA website. Relevant data on workforce characteristics and employment trends can be found in the following tables in Appendix D: ■ Table App D4.1: ICT Statistical summary
shows an increase in the number of ICT workers of almost 10 percent compared to 2012, with ICT technical, professional, management and trade staff growing by 7.1 percent since 2012 (see notes in Appendix 4 regarding classifications). Total ICT domestic annual university commencements for 2011 stood at 19,660, a 6 percent increase since 2009, while total ICT domestic annual university completions declined by 24.5 percent from 4,293 in 2010 to 3,240 in 2011. ■ Table App D4.2 CIIER calculation
of ICT workforce contribution shows that the ICT workforce plays a role in all industries and a significant role The growing adoption of mobile
telephony as a means of doing business is creating new businesses, new services, new data and information options and new workforces – see Figure 4.
Deloitte Access Economics17 summarised the size of the mobile telecommunications sector for 2011–12: ■ output was $22.0 billion, down
1.5 percent on the 2010–11 total, following a strong period of growth over the past decade
■ the total value added was
$14.1 billion, with $7.6 billion direct contribution and $6.5 billion indirect activity in related sectors and across the economy, and
■ total employment supported by the sector was 56,970 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, with 22,340 direct FTE employees.
Mobile telecommunications revenue is expected to grow to $25.9 billion by 2016–17, an 18 percent of increase compared with 2011–12. By 2016–17, total employment by the sector (direct and indirect) is expected to have grown by 8 percent to over 61,280 FTE jobs. The current wave of mobile technologies will result in a productivity benefit to the Australian economy of $11.8 billion over the period to 2025.18
Software publishing revenue over the last five years grew at an annualised rate of 1.5 percent to reach $1.33 billion in 2012–13 and is expected to rise at an annualised rate of 5.3 percent to reach $1.72 billion in 2017–18.19 This growth is directly attributed to the continuing growth in new technology, including smartphones, tablets and high speed internet access.
Workforce characteristics
and employment trends
ICT professionals are employed in firms in the ICT industry as well as firms and organisations that are not accounted for in the ICT industry. However, ICTFigure 4: Emerging structure of the mobile industry
Source: Deloitte Access Economics, 2013, Mobile Nation: The Economic and Social Impacts of
Mobile Technology, February 2013.
Mobile Industry Device manufacturer Mobile retailers App developers Content providers Mobile web M-commerce and mobile paymets AM2M technologies Mobile visual network operators Mobile resellers Mobile network carriers Equipment vendors
20 DEEWR, 2013, ICT Labour Market Indicators, February 2013. in industries such as professional
services (excluding ICT) and financial and insurance services.
■ Table App D4.3 CIIER technical and professional employment shows an increase since February 2012 in each component of the ICT workforce other than ICT industry administration and logistics support, which experienced an 18.8 percent decrease for the same period. Increases of 34.3 percent and 32.7 percent respectively occurred in ICT trades and ICT management and operations. There was consistent growth over five years (2009–12) for ICT technical and professionals in contrast to all other occupational groupings that experienced variable increases and decreases for the same period.
A high proportion of workers in ICT professional occupations are between 25 and 44 years of age – 67.8 percent compared with 44.8 percent for all occupations – see Figure 6. By contrast, the share of workers aged 45 and over is below the average for all occupations – 27.1 percent compared with 39.9 percent. The proportion of ICT professionals in the 20–24 age group is just 4.5 percent, compared with 9.7 percent for all occupations. There are a number of possible explanations for the relatively small proportion of ICT professionals in the 20–24 age group, these include:
■ insufficient supply of recent graduates ■ insufficient entry level positions in the
labour market, and
■occupations not recognised as ICT occupations.
■In 2011, the median age for ICT professionals was the same as for all occupations at 38 years of age. However, there is variability across the IT occupations with the median age ranging from 40 years for database and systems analysts and ICT security to 31 years for multimedia specialists and web developers. DEEWR concludes that, while ICT professionals are a relatively young workforce, there appears to be a limited number of entry level positions for persons in the 20–24 age group.20
Figure 5: ICT workers by occupational grouping, 2009–13
Source: CIIER Research Inc, 2013.
ITC workers, Feb 2009-Feb 2013, CIIER Labor Force extracts (amended to adjust for possible classification errors by ABS)
ITC Workers ITC Industry admin and
logistics support Electronic Trades and Professionals
ITC Trades ITC sales ITC Industry admin and
logistics support ITC Management
and operations
0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 600,000 700,000
Appendix D details additional statistics on the location and makeup of the workforce, including the following:
■Figure App D4.1: State % of national ICT workforce and national ICT industry workforce shows that New South Wales has the highest proportion of the national ICT workforce and the national ICT industry workforce. Western Australia, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory all show a larger proportion of the national ICT workforce than the national ICT industry workforce, suggesting significant use of ICT workers by other industries.
■Figure App D4.2: Women in ICT shows that women make up only 28.3 percent of the total ICT workforce and are underrepresented in each occupational grouping, with the highest presence in ICT management and operations at 32.6 percent and the lowest presence in ICT trades at 16.9 percent.
■Figure App D4.3 Women in ICT occupations (%) compared to women in
all occupations (%) shows that women are present in ICT occupations at a lower rate than the industry proportion of women in almost all industry sectors with the exception of mining, manufacturing, electricity, gas, water and waste services and transport, postal and warehousing, all areas historically associated with a strong representation by trades and men. ■ Table App D4.4 ICT Industry
employment in February 2013 shows the number employed in the industry in 2013 was 297,248, a small increase on 2012 figures of 291,088. ■ Figure 7 illustrates the changing
composition of the IT workforce between 2012 and 2013. The proportion of the workforce employed in consulting and software services has increased by over 16 percent, while the proportion employed in wholesale and retail of hardware and software products has declined dramatically, from 25.6 percent to 7 percent.
21 IBISWorld, 2012, A Snapshot of Australia Digital Future to 2050. 22 AWPA, 2013, ICT Workforce Study.
Figure 6: ICT professionals –distribution of employment across selected age groups, 2011
Source: DEEWR, 2013, ICT Labour Market Indicators, February 2013.
40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 15-19 20-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 45-54 65+
ITC Professionals All Occupations
Industry and
workforce outlook
Industry outlookIBISWorld predicts Australian consumers will need a monthly data allowance of almost 200 GB by 2020 and potentially five terabytes by 2030. Superfast broadband and technology will enable an increase in haptic – tactile feedback technology — devices that have the capacity to stimulate the sense of touch, based on a virtual 3-D environment.21 Growth in data usage will create demand for cloud computing services as businesses try to store more information. Private and hybrid cloud demand is expanding as security and control concerns around public cloud computing remain. This explosion of information is expected to increase demand for data analytics expertise to facilitate effective information management and information and cyber security services to ensure the safety of this data.22
23 Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Advanced Australia as a Digital Economy, 2013, An Update to the National Digital Economy Strategy, 2013. 24 OECD, 2013, ‘Building Blocks for Smart Networks’, OECD Digital Economy Papers, no. 215.
25 Ibid.
26 Cisco, 2013, Visual Networking Index: Mobile Forecast Highlights 2012–2017 27 IBISWorld, 2012, A Snapshot of Australia’s Digital Future to 2050.
The ever-increasing demand for data transmission is intended to be met by the construction of the NBN.23 The demand is being driven by: ■the rising number of
internet-connected devices in a household – the OECD estimated that an average household with two adults and two children had ten internet connected devices in their home during 2012,24 and predicts this will rise to 25 devices by 2017 and 50 devices by 202225
■the data intensity of the applications being used – Cisco estimates that by 2016, 14 billion minutes of video content will cross internet connections within Australia during a calendar year (up from four billion minutes in 2011), and that the gigabyte equivalent of all movies ever made will cross global internet protocol (IP) networks every three minutes,26 and
■the length of time that these applications are being used. Further predictions by IBISWorld27 for Australian business and society that will impact the ICT industry include the following:
■medium-sized companies (revenue $1–100 million) will grow in response to the outsourcing by households and businesses, with small businesses declining in favour of franchises that can provide economies of scale and IP to operate in the ‘Infotronics Age’ ■the rise of the virtual corporation
through outsourcing assets and non-core functions and activities
■one in four people could be working from home at least some of the time ■changing household expenditure with
less spent with traditional retailers and more online shopping and outsourced activities, and
■changing nature of work with more workers becoming their own business, and payment for outputs not inputs. Figure 7: Employment in the Australian ICT industry, 2013
60%
32%
7%
■1% Manufacturing of Harware or software
■7% Wholesale and Retail of Hardware and/or Software products
■32% Telecommunications Services ■60% Consulting and
Software Services Employment in the AustralianICT Industry 2013
Source: CIIER Research Inc, 2013 and 2012.
43%
28%
26%
■3% Manufacturing of Harwareor software
■26% Wholesale and Retail of Hardware and/or Software products
■28% Telecommunications Services ■43% Consulting and Software
Services Employment in the Australian ICT industry 2012
1%
28 IDC, 2012, Skills in the Workplace Forum, Parliament House, November 2012. 29 AWPA, 2013, ICT Workforce Study.
30 AWPA, 2013, ICT Workforce Study. 31 Ibid.
32 R. Dawson, 2013, Input Provided to the AWPA ICT Workforce Study Report. 33 AWPA, 2013, ICT Workforce Study.
Industry and Workforce Outlook (cont.)
Figure 8 shows the shrinking proportion of employers. Despite there being more than 1.6 million operational enterprises, less than a million employ any staff and a high proportion of the others are big employers. The top 1,000 firms employ a third of the 11.5 million workers. Research by IDC28 summarises the future as follows:
■ Broader uptake in cloud services across the board will not only continue but accelerate. Customers will look to adopt elements of, or the full array of, cloud services, such as platform as a service (PaaS), application as a service (AaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and business process as a service (BPaaS).
■ There is expected to be a rise in managed services opportunities for mobility. Mobile services will be increasingly adopted to support the
need for enterprises to support a more mobile user base, whether for to-business (B2B), consumer (B2C), or business-to-employee (B2E) purposes. ■ A stronger focus on business
outcomes. The focus of customers is shifting from concern over underlying technologies when outsourcing to focus on business outcomes.
Workforce and
employment outlook
DEEWR research indicates employment for ICT workers across all occupational groups will grow by 33,200 workers, or 7.1 percent, over the 2012–17 period – see Figure 9.29
The ICT jobs of the future demand broad skills that are increasingly difficult to place in existing ABS categories of occupations.30 For example, emerging mobile jobs include mobile product
manager, business analyst, project manager, test analyst, developer, and solution architect. Emerging cloud technology jobs include software engineer, sales executive, developer, systems administrator, consultant, systems engineer, network engineer, and product manager. Emerging business intelligence jobs include intelligence manager, business intelligence architect, developer, and analyst.31
The skills needs of the future require capabilities to engage with ‘collaboration strategies, use of collaboration tools, and cross-cultural communication to collaborate with ICT professional on and offshore’.32 Demand is expected to grow to build clusters of specialised skills and talents, which will create demand for specialised ICT skills in addition to the generic skills required for organisation support tasks.33 Technical capability, while still core, needs to be complemented by essential contextual, behavioural and
Source: IBISWorld, 2012, A Snapshot of Australia Digital Future to 2050.
Figure 8: Disposition of workforce in Australia
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2011 2020 100 80 60 40 20 0 Employers Contractual Employees Union members Year Percent 55 49 44.5 36.3 21.7 15.7 11 28.7 35.5 40.8 49.7 64.1 1.0 13.2 61.9 14 8.4 9.5 20 59.5 14 14.7 15.5 16.3
34 Weekend Australian, June 29–30, 2013, ‘Creating Happy Job Hunters’, Weekend Professional supplement.
35 Department of Finance and Deregulation, Australian Government Information Management Office, 2013, The Australian Public Service Big Data Strategy 36 Hudson ICT, 2013, Salary & Employment Insights 2013.
37 IBSA, 2013, Digital Literacy and E-skills: Participation in the Digital Economy.
38 M. Bowles, and P. Wilson, 2010, Impact of the Digital Economy and the National Broadband Network on Skills. 39 IBSA, 2013, Digital Literacy and E-skills: Participation in the Digital Economy.
Figure 9: Employment projections for six of the highest employing ICT occupations, 2012–17
Source: DEEWR, 2013, ‘Occupation Projections to November 2017’, 2013 Employment Projections. http://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/EmploymentProjections.
commercial competencies. Solutions and enterprise architects need to understand consumer and client needs; industry and market trends; current versus future network capacity and performance; be able to communicate and work with customers and consumers to define business and individual requirements; and then develop solutions. Customer and client expectations versus needs have to be effectively managed then met. This requires a combination of well-developed technical skills and highly developed business acumen, along with superior interpersonal skills. Organisations are using social media to interact with their customers, suppliers and employees. This, along with other mobile phone applications, is creating a new range of jobs, such as
social media managers, social media producers and social media technology engineers. Skills identified for social media managers are community engagement, search engine
optimisation, technology knowledge, polished writing ability, analytic thinking and the ability to lead discussions.34 Big data analytics will create new ICT jobs and possibly new professions.35 Specialist recruitment companies report the following roles and skills as being in demand: enterprise architects, cloud computing experts, relations/ supplier manager/business partners, mobile applications developers, change specialists, health informatics professionals and digital specialists.36 Digital literacy underpins not only a nation’s capacity to provide individuals and groups with equity of access to social opportunity, it is a necessity for participation in the digital economy.37 The following figure provides demand for each type of digital skill from a survey conducted by IBSA in 2012 as part of its Digital Literacy and E-skills Report.
Further research has indicated that new skills may be required at levels 2 (extension) and 3 (strategic), rather than level 1 (foundation);38 these include:
■ digital information literacy
■ commercialise a digital technology product, design or idea
■ promote virtual access to 3-D digitised cultural and community assets
■ promote digital literacy skills in the local community/group
■ develop online sales, service and marketing strategies
■ serve and interact with customers online in real time
■ manage telework, and
■ work with others in a virtual/offsite/ telework team.39
In summary, technical competence will continue to be required but will need to Employment level November 2012 Projected employment level November 2017
100 80 60 40 20 0 Persons (‘000) Software and Applications Programmers ITC Support
Technicians ManagersITC
Electronics Trades Workers Database and Systems Administrators and ITC Security ITC Business and Systems Analysis 80.5 84.0 54.9 58 51.8 55.2 34.1 38.5 34.0 37.9 33.9 37.2
work in conjunction with behavioural skills to meet both internal and external customer service requirements. Skills in negotiation, influencing, collaboration and interpersonal relations are expected to become increasingly important for business to differentiate services to customers. A list of occupations in demand is developed in Appendix B. The list is collated from industry intelligence presented in this Escan on the industry, employment trends and the workforce, along with the responses to the Occupations in Demand 2013 survey of industry stakeholders. This list contributes to workforce development and planning strategies highlighted in Chapter 3 and also presents a clear relationship to training packages. Shortages are being reported in areas such as cloud computing, big data and
applications development, with demand not consistent across geographic areas. Cloud and customer centric technology were particular areas where there was demand for experts. Shortages are also being reported in software development, Java skills, web development and software engineering. On a national basis, ACS noted particular demand for business analysts, social media and application developers, particularly in gamification, which involves applying the mechanics and narrative structure of a game into sales and marketing, learning and customer experience.40 The following occupations and job roles were reported as in demand in the Information and Communications Technology industry during IBSA’s Escan 2013 industry consultations and validation:
40 ARN, 2013, IT Skills in Hot Demand, Particularly in the Cloud and Big Data Sectors.
■network security ■data security ■cyber security ■network engineers ■data analyst ■ICT trainers ■software developers
■telecommunications trades – installers, line workers and splicers
■wifi routing ■IP networking
■communication and customer skills, and
■systems integrators. Industry and Workforce
Figure 10: Overall ranking of priority digital literacy skills needs 1. eCitizen - Essential Skills
2. IT users digital literacy - Essential Skills 3. Internet technology and social
networking
4. Small office and home office equipment and network setup - Essential Skills 5. Digital content development and
collaboration - Essential Skills 6. Web development - Essential Skills 7. Small Office and home eqiupment
and network set up
8. Small Office and home network equipment and set up
9. Establish business communications solutions and systems security 10. Sell products and services online 11. Manage business communications
solutions and systems security 12. Develop a business case and select
appropriate IT strategies and solutions 13. Managing business ICT change project 14. Set up an e-business capability 15. Manage virtual or out-sourced
ICT services
16. Establishing sustainable and Green ICT business goals
4.423 4.51 4.414 4.069 4.3 4.074 4.321 4.214 4.037 4.259 4.111 4.143 3.966 4.138 4.107 3.963
Australian
Government priorities
The Australian Government has an ambitious program of reforms centred around capitalising on the benefits to be gained through a digital economy, including the Big Data Strategy, which will assist agencies in achieving productivity gains through better service delivery and policy development, while ensuring the privacy of individuals remain protected.Reframing the ICT industry
and ICT careers
Attracting and keeping people in the ICT workforce will be critical to the prosperity of the ICT industry, which is undergoing strong growth. Diverse skills are required, with little geographic association. There is a need for selling the ICT industry opportunities of the 21st century by stimulating interest in both the technical and behavioural requirements of workers.
Perceptions of the ICT industry continue to inadequately represent the broad range of opportunities ICT offers as a career. For example, solutions
Identified workforce
development needs
The following chapter outlines the workforce development needs identified in the research
and consultation process and supported by feedback gathered from the ICT Sector Advisory
Committee. Workforce development needs do not generally change significantly in any
12-month period, but they may change in relative importance and impact.
development, while critical to the industry, is not readily reflected in job titles or functions.
New business models, workplace arrangements and increased mobility could be used to expand the pool of potential workers. In particular, females are significantly underrepresented in both study in ICT qualifications and participation in the ICT workforce. Figures show that fewer students are choosing ICT as a career and those that do are highly likely to discontinue their ICT studies, particularly if they are female.41 Australian apprenticeships, though recognised as successful in combining training and employment, are not well established as pathways for entry into ICT careers. Further work is required in this area.
Maximising student
learning experiences
Intakes into VET and higher education ICT qualifications are insufficient to meet the projected demands of the ICT industry and, when combined with the low completion rates, indicate effort is needed in this area. This may
be somewhat explained by evidence suggesting that for many ICT occupations there is no direct link to a qualification and industry is often more interested in vendor qualifications. Ensuring vendor training is mapped to training package qualifications and accessible to schools may increase industry value of formal qualifications and create pathways to accredited training.
Units of competency are the building blocks upon which vocational qualifications are created and specify the standards of performance required in the workplace with assessment of competence requiring evidence of both knowledge and performance and training providers encouraged to assess under workplace conditions. Despite this, anecdotal feedback from industry indicates a lack of confidence in VET with concerns around the quality and rigour of assessment, consistency of learning outcomes and work readiness of students upon completion.
While work placements are not
mandatory in demonstrating competence, providers are increasingly looking for opportunities for students to have real
work experiences that can also be used to assess performance but they are finding this very difficult. Work experience is intended to provide employers with confidence in the work readiness of prospective employees, while students experience the reality of an IT work environment. Providers can build relationships with ICT industry employers and associations to create a pool of potential work placements for real-time work exposure and develop strategies to support supervision by industry and in particular the growing number of SMEs in the ICT industry. Through the training package endorsement process, Industry Skills Councils engage with, and rely on, industry participation to advise on skill requirements and ensure accurate interpretation and integration of these skills into units of competency and ultimately into qualifications. The wide range of industries that utilise ICT skills may result in some industry sectors not being well represented during this process and may not sufficiently express their industry and organisation’s needs in terms of skill and knowledge requirements and work readiness.
Lack of work readiness in ICT graduates is a frequent claim from employers, which inhibits their willingness to employ recent graduates and is compounded by the lack of inhouse training programs. With moves away from traditional employment models to contracting – see Figure 8 – this will become even more challenging to achieve. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across various industry sectors utilise ICT skills to meet a wide range of needs, some enduring, such as network support, and some highly specialised one-offs, such as implementation of a new program. SMEs will generally have minimal capacity for supervision of students and entry level employees in ICT-specific positions, both in terms of time available and technical skill.
Engaging SMEs with options to contribute to developing work-ready employees and in creating entry level positions that recognise their concerns may include:
■ offering short-term entry level positions, which are supervised by a third party who also provides technical supervision and coaching, eg the group training model
■taking students on placements while still studying, where academic and technical supervision is provided by the education provider, and
■hosting student teams to work on real industry projects, co-supervised by industry and the education provider. These strategies may require financial incentives to enhance attractiveness to SMEs.
Developing an adaptable,
skilled workforce
A survey of 900 Australian IT workers found that 57 percent of respondents believed their company did not invest enough in training and development and 65 percent believed they could not progress to the next level in their current company.42 Expenditure on education within the ICT industry remains low despite the increasing complexity of ICT services and the increasing adoption of cloud services and mobile services.43 Effective workforce planning and development at the enterprise level needs to align with business objectives. Traditionally organisations maintained a group of IT professionals to service most requirements. Increasingly organisations use contracted IT services by maintaining an inventory of external partners that are highly skilled domain experts. This results in organisational skills shifting from specialised roles to roles of a more general nature with a bias toward business analysis, data analysis, procurement, service management and
contract management, leaving technology skills the domain of service providers. This growth in contract work has resulted in lean organisations often devolving their responsibility for upskilling of the existing workforce. Strategies that encourage industry to develop and maintain a technically and professionally skilled workforce will continue to be critical to the ongoing growth of the ICT industry.
Increasing workforce
numbers through
increasing diversity
The Business Council of Australia (BCA) reports that Australia needs to continue to build and grow a skilled and innovative workforce by increasing rates of labour force participation so that there are enough workers with suitable skills and capabilities to meet the demands of the Australian economy. They say that the labour market and especially workplace relations arrangements must permit businesses to grow, innovate and manage
their workforce and capital effectively. It is estimated that by increasing the participation of women with children and older Australians to world-leading rates, more than 700,000 workers will be brought into the labour market, boosting our overall participation rate by 4 percentage points.44
For the ICT industry, where women, mature and regional workers are underrepresented, the opportunity exists to access a workforce that may engage well with the new working paradigms with a focus on outputs, rather than traditional inputs, such as hours worked. As location is not a requirement for the design and development of ICT services, there could be new work opportunities for those in regional and remote areas and home workers.
Increasing participation through addressing diversity in the workplace is also closely linked to the perception of the ICT industry and to training and upskilling. The ICT industry is perceived as ageist and discriminatory in its recruitment and job design structures.45
42 Ambition, 2013, Market Trend Report Australia 1H. 43 AWPA, 2013, ICT Workforce Study.
44 BCA, 2013, Action Plan for Prosperity.
46 Phillipson G., 2013, ‘More Than Half of All Employed Australians are Now “Digital Workers”’, ITWIRE, 16 October 2013. 47 AiG, 2013, Submission to AWPA ICT Workforce Study.
48 IBSA, 2013, Digital Literacy and E-skills: Participation in the Digital Economy. Just as workplace arrangements
and business models are changing, opportunities are being created for new jobs, delivered in new ways by a wider range of workers who in the past may have been marginalised.
Skills for a Digital Economy
In its broadest sense digital literacy will be required for the whole community to ensure it benefits from the digital economy. Efforts at national, state and community levels are being invested into improving digital literacy capabilities in recognition of its importance to the Australia’s prosperity.The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) released a report aimed at determining the extent of digital work in Australia. The research shows an estimated 5.6 million adult Australians (or 51percent of the workforce) are digital workers, using the internet to work away from the office at least some of the time. The report defines digital workers as employed
people using the internet to work away from the office outside standard working hours, and teleworkers who are allowed to work away from the office, substituting coming into the office for part or all of the day.46
In its submission to AWPA, the
Australian Industry Group (AiG) stated: ‘Improving foundation skills, such as literacy, numeracy and problem solving, is an important element of a workforce skills strategy for the digital economy. These skills are essential building blocks for digital capabilities in a technology rich environment and are the first step in the challenge of lifting the digital capabilities of the workforce. Ongoing monitoring of the digital literacy capabilities of the Australian workforce will be important to identify and act on any gaps in skills or training needs.’47 Those already marginalised through low levels of digital literacy will be further disadvantaged as technology is further integrated into all aspects of life, further limiting their access to work and lifestyle opportunities. IBSA research also
suggests that with increasing access to affordable information technology and high speed broadband, the digital divide is widening as efforts to improve ICT skills (or e-skills) struggle to keep pace with demand. Compared with urban Australians who have had prior access to high speed broadband and the requisite skills to use ICT, individuals and small businesses in NBN early release rural and regional sites and those groups with historically low digital literacy apparently lack the e-skills required to more rapidly leverage the NBN.48
IBSA undertakes research and consultation with industry to guide the development of qualifications, skill sets and units of competency for the ICT industry and the ICT workforce in that industry and within all other Australian industries.
Current impact
of training packages
IBSA is progressively reviewing and restructuring its training packages to meet
the Standards for Training Packages after the Standing Council on Tertiary
Education, Skills and Employment endorsed the new Standards in 2012, with
IBSA’s restructuring scheduled for completion by 30 December 2014.
Update on training packages
The Standards implement many of the recommendations from the former National Quality Council’s VET Products for the 21 Century report of 2009. The new design presents information more simply, clearly and logically. The workplace performance standards and assessment requirements for units of competency are in separate documents, with guidance information for implementing training packages in companion volumes.IBSA has two training packages that provide for VET skilling for the ICT Industry: ICA Information and Communications Technology and ICT Integrated Telecommunications. The continuous improvement process for both of these training packages has recognised the significant impact on skills from the convergence of technologies across a number of industry areas, including telecommunications, information technology and digital media. The updating of the qualifications ensures that this technology convergence is addressed within and across the different qualifications.
ICA Information and
Communications Technology Training Package
The ICA Information and Communications Technology Training Package provides qualifications from Certificate I to graduate level qualifications. In addition
to the broad industry technology convergences mentioned above at a sector or occupational level, convergence is occurring in networking, web
development, software development, database integration, sustainability, application implementation and digital and interactive games.
During 2012–13 several units of competency were updated and new technical units developed to respond to the expansion of cloud and virtualisation technologies. The NSSC, at their meeting on 9 October 2013, endorsed ten new units of competency covering cloud computing conceptualisation, big data and virtualisation technologies. ICT Integrated
Telecommunications Training Package
ICT Integrated Telecommunications Training Package covers:
■ broadband and wireless technology ■ digital reception technology ■ optical networks
■ radio frequency networks ■ rigging installation ■ telecommunications network engineering ■ telecommunications planning and design ■ NBN infrastructure, and ■ NBN maintenance.
Since implementing Version 1 of the current ICT Training Package, major infrastructure projects including the NBN and digital TV switchover have commenced, exposing shortcomings in the package. A project has since been undertaken to include the required refinements, with the ICT Integrated Telecommunications Training Package v2 being endorsed by the NSSC in June 2013. New qualifications and units of competency address the construction of the NBN and installation of fixed wireless. Other revisions addressed workplace health and safety, cabling, optical fibre and installation.
In the Strategic Review Report of the construction of the NBN, NBN Co recommends that it develops an optimised multi-technology approach to rolling out the NBN, to balance fast deployment of 50 Mbps broadband with better economics, to the highest number of Australians. It goes further to conclude ‘that there is not a fundamental shortage of labour. With sufficient lead-times, visibility of future work and continuity of work within a geography (for at least six to twelve months), it will be possible to train (where necessary) and mobilise the required capacity. While there are some variations in the skills needed for the different technologies, most skills are either common between technologies or readily convertible. The biggest constraint to the network rollout is the availability of network designers, senior
49 NBN Co, 2013, Strategic Review Report. and experienced project managers, in-field supervisors and project control staff to provide leadership and oversee program delivery.’ This constraint is expected to have impact on the installation timeline.49
Restructure of training packages From 1 January 2014, the NSSC will only accept new training package cases for endorsement where the proposed components meet the new Standards for Training Packages. All training packages must comply with the new standards by 31 December 2015. The ICA Information and
Communications Technology Training Package restructuring is expected to be endorsed in August 2014.
The ICT Integrated Telecommunications Training Package restructuring is expected to be endorsed in December 2014.
Uptake of training packages
This section provides generalinformation on enrolments and completions in ICT and ICA Training Packages and learner characteristics. Appendix C provides a comprehensive explanation of the NCVER data used in this section.
Detailed qualification level enrolment and qualification completion data
provided in Appendices in current and previous Escans have linked similar qualifications over time in an attempt to provide comparable counts for qualifications that minimise the impact of changes to training packages and qualifications over time, eg qualifications that are superseded, replaced and created. This linking is similar to, but not always identical with, information on historical qualification mapping available on the
www.training.gov.au website. This website is the ‘system of record’ for Australian VET qualifications. In a small number of cases, qualifications have changed training packages. Such changes are considered and reflected in the qualification linking. The impact declines over time as most new activity occurs in the most recent qualification and training package. Qualification linking has been used in this report only to identify the five current qualifications with highest and lowest enrolments for each training package and those qualifications with particularly high or low percentages of Indigenous enrolments.
Consistent with previous NCVER data reports, all other tables in each section of this report are based on the qualification’s parent training package
as indicated by the first three characters of the qualification code.
ICT course enrolments and
qualifications completed
Enrolments in ICT qualifications continue to decrease. The 3.1 percent decrease between 2011 and 2012 shows some improvement on the average annual decrease of 5.7 percent between 2009 and 2012.The decrease in completions in Information and Communications Technology qualifications from 2011 to 2012 currently looks large at 16.6 percent but is based on preliminary 2012 data that is subject to upward revision following the next collection. The average annual decrease in completions between 2009 and 2012 is 7.8 percent.
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
THE FIVE ICA QUALIFICATIONS WITH THE HIGHEST ENROLMENTS
ICA30111, ICA30105 Certificate III in Information, Digital Media and Technology (13,808)
ICA20111, ICA20105,
ICA20199 Certificate II in Information, Digital Media and Technology (11,998) ICA10111, ICA10105,
ICA10101 Certificate I in Information, Digital Media and Technology (9,301) ICA40411, ICA40405 Certificate IV in Information Technology Networking
(3,198)
ICA50411, ICA50405 Diploma of Information Technology Networking (2,079)
THE FIVE QUALIFICATIONS FROM THE ICA TRAINING PACKAGE THAT HAVE THE LOWEST REPORTED ENROLMENTS
ICA70211 Vocational Graduate Certificate in Information Technology Sustainability (18)
ICA50211 Diploma of Digital and Interactive Games (19) ICA40711, ICA40705 Certificate IV in Systems Analysis and Design (48) ICA40611, ICA40605 Certificate IV in Information Technology Testing (49) ICA60311 Advanced Diploma of Information Technology Business
Analysis (53)
Source: VOCSTATS, http://www.ncver.edu.au/resources/vocstats/intro.html, (extracted 24.07.2013).
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS
TECHNOLOGY (ICA) 2009 2010 2011 2012
ICA Enrolments 63,803 60,233 55,293 53,584
% Change in enrolments year to year -5.6% -8.2% -3.1%
Average annual % change in enrolments 2009–12 -5.7% Overall % change in enrolments 2009–12 -16.0%
ICT qualifications completed 14,841 13,515 13,923 11,617
% Change in qualifications completed -8.9% 3.0% -16.6%
Average annual % change in qualifications completed 2009–12 -7.8% Overall % change in qualifications completed 2009–12 -21.7%
Source: VOCSTATS, http://www.ncver.edu.au/resources/vocstats/intro.html, (extracted 22.07.2013), and completions data provided by NCVER.
Note: Data for qualifications completed in 2012 are based on preliminary data submissions. The 2012 data will be revised upwards in the 2012 VET Provider Collection to accommodate further notification of qualifications completed.
Table 1: Enrolments and qualifications completed in ICA Training Package in 2009-2012
ICA enrolments by
qualification level
Data presented in Figure 12 highlights that enrolments in ICA are decreasing at all qualification levels except for Certificate III. In 2012, Certificate III had the highest overall enrolments while previously Certificate II had the highest overall enrolments.
ICA highest and
lowest enrolments
For 2012, the five ICA qualifications with the highest enrolments represented 75.4 percent of total enrolments in that package. These qualifications are listed right with the total number of enrolments in brackets.
For 2012, the five qualifications from the ICA Training Package that have the lowest reported enrolments are listed right with the total number of enrolments in 2012 in brackets.
Source: National VET Provider Collection data, including preliminary data for 2012 not yet in VOCSTATS, provided by NCVER on 07.08.2013. Figure 11: Qualifications completed in ICA and annual percentage change, 2009–12
2009 2010 2011 2012 14,841
13,515 13,923
11,617
2009 2010 2011 2012
Figure 12: Enrolments by qualification level in ICA, 2009–12
Certificate II Certificate II Certificate III Certificate IV Diploma or higher
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
ICA enrolments by state
and territory
Enrolments by jurisdiction follow the population distribution across Australia, but declining enrolments over the period 2009–12 are most prevalent in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.
ICA enrolments by student
remoteness region
Declines are evident enrolments in all regions except for major cities where a slight increase occurred between 2011 and 2012.
ICA qualifications
enrolment characteristics
This section details variouscharacteristics of students enrolled in ICA qualifications in 2012, including previous highest education level, age group, sex, study mode (full or part time) and the delivery mode for the subjects studied as part of the qualification. Figures and tables illustrating this information are provided on the IBSA website.
Previous highest
education level
Over 57 percent of those enrolled have no post-secondary qualifications, and 38 percent did not complete Year 12. Those with an existing Certificate III or higher qualification make up 31 percent of those enrolled in 2012 suggesting these VET qualifications are being used for some for upskilling and/or reskilling.
Enrolments by age group
For the period 2009–12, the largest number of enrolments occurred with those aged 19 and younger, while the Figure 13: Enrolments by state and territory in ICA qualifications, 2009–1225,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0
NSW VIC QLD SA WA TAS NT ACT
2009 2010 2011 2012
Figure 14: Enrolments in ICA qualifications by student remoteness region, 2009–12
Source: VOCSTATS, http://www.ncver.edu.au/resources/vocstats/intro.html, (extracted 24.07.2013 and 26.07.2013).
Note: Data for 2009 and 2010 are based on the Student Remoteness Region 2006 (ARIA+), while data for 2011 and 2012 are based on the Student Remoteness Region 2011 (ARIA+).
2009 2010 2011 2012 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0
Major Cities Inner Regional Outer Regional Remote & Very Remote Overseas & Unknown
Table 2: Percentage of enrolments in ICA and all IBSA qualifications by Indigenous students, 2009–12
INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY (ICA) 2009 2010 2011 2012
Percentage of ICA enrolments by Indigenous students 3.7% 4.2% 4.4% 3.9%
Percentage of all IBSA enrolments by Indigenous students 4.3% 4.4% 4.0% 4.0%
Source: VOCSTATS, http://www.ncver.edu.au/resources/vocstats/intro.html, (extracted 02.09.2013).
most consistent pattern of enrolments occurred with those aged 20–24 years and 25–29 years.
Enrolments by gender
Men heavily outnumber women in enrolments in the ICA Training Package and moreover for the 2009–12 period enrolments by females declined by 31.9 percent, compared to a decline in enrolments by males of 8.4 percent for the same period. The proportion of women has declined from 32.8 percent in 2009 to 26.6 percent in 2012.Enrolments by qualification
study mode and subject
delivery mode
Full-time study is undertaken by 37 percent of students and 70 percent study on campus. Online enrolments have
increased between 2011 and 2012, from 10 percent to 15 percent of all enrolments.
Enrolments by
Indigenous students
Table 2 shows that the percentage of students enrolling in ICA qualifications who identify themselves as Indigenous is
similar to the overall percentage for all IBSA qualification enrolments.
High numbers of Indigenous students were enrolled in lower-level qualifications, with enrolments in Certificate I in Information, Digital Media and Technology comprising 9.6 percent or 897 Indigenous students.
ICA apprenticeships
and traineeships
Apprentice and trainee commencements have trended upwards since 2010, with completions increasing slightly between 2011 and 2012.
2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0
INTEGRATED TELECOMMUNICATIONS (ICT)
(ExCLUDING CUSTOMER CONTACT QUALIFICATIONS) 2009 2010 2011 2012
ICT enrolments 6,309 2,634 2,786 3,906
ICT customer contact enrolments 4,197 370 12 1
ICT enrolments (excluding customer contact) 2,112 2,264 2,774 3,905
% Change in ICT enrolments (excluding customer contact) year to year 7.2% 22.5% 40.8%
Average annual % change in enrolments 2009–12 22.7% Overall % change in enrolments 2009–12 84.9%
ICT qualifications completed 2,702 682 855 845
ICT customer contact qualifications completed 2,332 205 8 0
ICT qualifications completed (excluding customer contact) 370 477 847 845 % Change in ICT qualifications completed (excluding customer contact) 28.9% 77.6% -0.2%
Average annual % change in qualifications completed (excluding customer contact) 2009–12 31.7% Overall % change in qualifications completed (excluding customer contact) 2009–12 128.4%
Source: VOCSTATS, http://www.ncver.edu.au/resources/vocstats/intro.html, (extracted 22.07.2013), and completions data provided by NCVER. Note: Data for qualifications completed in 2012 are based on preliminary data submissions. The 2012 data will be revised upwards in the 2012 VET Provider Collection to accommodate further notification of qualifications completed.
Integrated
Telecommunications
course enrolments and
qualifications completed
Table 3 (overleaf) shows that Integrated Telecommunications enrolments have increased over the period 2009 to 2012 after adjusting for the transfer of customer contact qualifications from the Integrated Telecommunications Training Package to the Business Services Training Package. Qualifications completed in Telecommunications, ie the Integrated Telecommunications qualifications, excluding customercontact qualifications, show an average annual increase of 31.7 percent between 2009 and 2012 based on preliminary 2012 completions data. While preliminary 2012 Telecommunications qualifications completions are at much the same level as the 2011 completions, the 2012 figure is expected to increase when final 2012 data becomes available in 2014. Qualifications completed in
Telecommunications (that is, the Integrated Telecommunications qualifications excluding customer contact qualifications) show an average annual increase of 31.7 percent
between 2009 and 2012 based on preliminary 2012 completions data. While preliminary 2012 Telecommunications qualifications completions are at much the same level as the 2011 completions, the 2012 figure is expected to increase when final 2012 data becomes available in 2014.
Integrated Telecommunications
enrolments by
qualification level
Data presented in Figure 17 show that Certificate II and Certificate III Table 3: Enrolments and qualifications completed in Telecommunications, 2009–12
Source: Apprentices and Trainees Collection from VOCSTATS, http://www.ncver.edu.au/resources/vocstats/intro.html, (extracted 23.07.2013).
Notes specific to Apprenticeship and Traineeship statistics: Figures are based on date of effect rather than the date of processing. Due to lags in reporting and processing, the most recent figures (generally those for the last seven quarters, or two years) are estimates and are subject to revision.
2009 2010 2011 2012 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0
Figure 15: Apprenticeship and traineeship commencements, completions, cancellations/withdrawals and numbers in training in ICT qualifications, 2009–12
Commencements Completions Cancellations/Withdrawals In Training
INTEGRATED TELECOMMUNICATIONS (ICT) 2009 2010 2011 2012
Percentage of ICT enrolments by Indigenous students 1.2% 0.9% 1.4% 3.1%
Percentage of all IBSA enrolments by Indigenous students 4.3% 4.4% 4.0% 4.0%
Source: VOCSTATS, http://www.ncver.edu.au/resources/vocstats/intro.html, (extracted 02.09.2013).
Source: National VET Provider Collection data, including preliminary data for 2012 not yet in VOCSTATS, provided by NCVER on 07.08.2013.
