Narrowing the tech industry’s skills gap by shifting mindsets Australian organisations have to reframe the approach to hiring to become even more inclusive in talent acquisition practices, creating more pathways for skilled talent to enter the workforce
C OVER
STORY
By Belinda Lewis
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he Australian market is experiencing an unprecedented demand for technical talent. About 87 per cent of jobs in Australia now require digital skills. To meet the growing demands of businesses, the country will need 156,000 new tech workers by 2025. In response to this, IBM has doubled the size of our local talent acquisition team in 2021 to keep pace. We also know that we need to look inwards if we want to find a sustainable solution to narrowing the skills gap in Australia and New Zealand. This context is why we are approaching hiring differently and stepping up our efforts to upskill and reskill our workforce.
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Learning should be at the | october 2021
Hiring capability over credentials: IBM has been transforming the way we hire and one of the key changes we’ve made is to focus more on skills than credentials. We’re moving away from expecting and requiring formal qualifications. Instead, we’re looking for experiential learning and diversity in experience. As part of this transformation, we have focused on creating what we call ‘new collar’ jobs. These are roles that are core of organisational DNA. neither blue nor white-collar We must constantly expand and don’t always require a our skillsets and acquire bachelor’s degree or previnew knowledge to be able to ous career in IT. innovate and deliver technolThree programs are helpogy that solves the world’s ing us grow our pool of new greatest challenges. Learncollar talent in Australia and ing becomes even more criti- New Zealand: neurodivercal when you consider that in sity, Pathways in Technology the Technology industry, the P-TECH (Pathways in Techhalf-life of skills is less than nology) and, most recently, two years. tech re-entry. Along with learning, We have also recently Australian organisations welcomed our second cohort have to reframe the approach of neurodivergent hires in to hiring to become even Australia and New Zealand. more inclusive in talent Through our Neurodiversity acquisition practices, creatProgram, IBM aims to open ing more pathways for up opportunities for and hire more neurodiverse talent. skilled talent to enter the As HR Director, I’ve met workforce. Broadly, here are three strategies that are help- candidates with great skills and aptitudes who have ing us address the skills gap taken non-traditional career in Australia:
