CIO initiative launched to ease skills crisis

Six universities take part

In an effort to overcome continuing ICT skills shortages, Australian CIOs have launched an initiative of their own to find quality graduates and entry level IT candidates.

The new service has been launched by peer to peer networking group the CIO Executive Council which has over 80 IT professionals as members from leading Australian and multi-national organizations.

The service provides members with access to a pool of talented graduates candidates via the council's Web site.

Graduates submit their resume to the site with six universities participating in the service including the Queensland University of Technology, Sydney University, Canberra University, Monash University, the University of South Australia and Swinburne University.

Council staff will perform an initial screening of candidates with the organization's executive director Con Colovos claiming members can search for specific skill sets and locate profiles that match their needs.

"One obvious benefit is that CIOs can source high quality candidates with ease, saving their organizations both time and money," Colovos said.

The council is also partnering with the Sydney Universities Business Information Systems Student Association (BISA) which aims to become a National Student Association in 2007. The council is also a sponsor of the BISA.

Speaking at a CIO Magazine conference recently, council member and Queensland government CIO Peter Grant said the continuing skills shortage is a growing problem for IT departments.

Grant said IT enrolments in tertiary insitutions has dropped 70 per cent in the past five years.

"Everyone is saying 2006 is a great year as IT enrolments have only fallen 15 per cent," he said.

"We need to let young people know ICT is a great career choice with plenty of opportunity."

Only last month the federal government launched an $837 million program to ease the skills crisis.

The CIO Executive Council is a division of IDG, the publisher of Computerworld.

More about: Business Information Systems, Monash University, Monash University, Networking Group, Queensland Government, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland University of Technology, Swinburne University, University of South, University of South Australia, VIA

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