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Queensland ups the ante in ICT skills debate with grant

22.06.2006
The Queensland government has pledged nearly A$500,000 (US$360,000) over two years to counter what it sees as an ongoing ICT (information and communications technology) skills shortage in the state which will continue to worsen if left unabated.

During his keynote address to open the National ICT Skills Summit in Brisbane yesterday, Queensland's IT Policy Minister Chris Cummins announced a A$250,000 program to encourage an injection of talent into the ICT industry.

The funding will go towards a new program to promote ICT as a viable career choice.

The ICT Career Start program is part of the Beattie government's billion dollar skills plan to reform the state's vocational education and training sector, which includes 23 new skills formation strategies recently announced by the Minister for Employment, Training, Sport, and Industrial Relations, Tom Barton.

Cummins also announced the state's Department of Employment and Training will provide an additional A$240,000 to fund a Queensland ICT skills formation strategy.

"Research conducted in the lead up to the summit found that students and parents had little understanding of exactly what ICT careers had to offer," Cummins said, adding there is a perception that ICT jobs we're boring or had poor working environments.