14 November 2007

Australian immigration needed because Australian education not producing enough skilled IT workers

Australian universities are not producing enough IT graduates and the industry needs Australian immigration to meet the skills shortage.

The predictions were made at an industry debate in Sydney, in which chief executives, chief information officers and senior IT sector representatives talked to educators, employees and recent graduates.

"We are going to face an increasing skills shortage over the next couple of years. Something pretty dramatic must happen before we will see an increase in commencing enrolments in 2009," said Monash University IT faculty dean Ron Weber.

The grim news comes on top of the 13 per cent drop in people taking IT courses last year. Professor Weber criticised the industry for being "very slow to realise the problems with the shortage of IT students in the universities."

Australia needs skilled IT professionals: anyone interested in applying for an Australian visa should complete the Australian Visa Bureau's online Australian visa assessment to see if they qualify for skilled migration to Australia.