Information and Communications Technology

Overview

The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry can be seen as comprising three main areas:

Information technology – this covers all areas related to processing, manipulating and managing information.
Telecommunications technology – this covers cabling, wireless, switching, transmission, radio frequency, and optical communications media and internet protocol networks.
Digital media – this covers design and production of multimedia and games for various platforms.

Please visit the following pages for data specific to the following Information and Communications Technology sectors:

The training packages covering the Information and Communications Technology industry are:

All data sources are available at the end of the page.

IRC and Skills Forecasts

Industry cluster snapshot

Employment and training snapshot

People employed in jobs in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) work across all industries, so it is difficult to capture total employment by industry.

As such, the employment data in the chart should be considered as indicative only. Further information on people employed in Information and Communications Technology by occupation can be found in the individual sector pages.

The chart shows that the largest sector by far is Computer System Design and Related Services. This sector has seen strong growth over the past couple of decades. 2019 has seen the highest employment level with 252,000 and is projected to grow to 287,400 by 2024. The other large sector is Telecommunications Services. This sector has seen relatively stable employment numbers over the period shown in the chart. Internet Service Providers, Web Search Portals and Data Processing Services has increased as a sector of employment in 2019 but is expected to decline again up to 2024.

The 2018 report Australia’s Digital Pulse (from Deloitte Access Economics for the Australian Computer Society) reported Australia’s ICT workforce at 663,100 workers in 2017, up 3.5% from 640,800 in the previous year. They forecast continued growth to a high of 758,700 by 2023. The spread of ICT workers was evident, with an estimated 51% of ICT worker employed outside of ICT specific industries.

Program enrolments across the two ICT training packages have remained stable at around 97,000 over the 2015–16 period. Most recently, in 2018, enrolments have declined to 65,120. Program completions have declined somewhat, falling from a high of 26,820 in 2015 to 19,540 in 2018. Subject only enrolments had a large increase in 2018 to 52,770, up from 31,410 the previous year and 8,800 in 2016. This suggests students may be choosing one or more subjects instead of whole programs when using this training package.

Industry insights

Industry insights on skills needs

According to the Information and Communications Technology IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast, the priority skills for the Information and Communications Technology industry are:

Work health and safety
Teamwork and communication
Problem solving
Technical skills to keep pace with consistent change and evolution or technology in the sector.

According to job vacancy data, the top generic skills in demand in this industry are:

Communication skills
Problem solving
Planning
Building effective relationships
Troubleshooting.

This job vacancy data showed the top occupations in demand as Computer Network Professionals and Software and Applications Programmers.

In the Information and Communications Technology IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast, the key demands impacting the ICT sector were:

Changing technology, including emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT), and increasing growth in computing power and data volume requiring highly specialised skills to leverage, design and implement.
Increasing adoption of automation technologies, estimated to impact 25–46% of current work activities by 2030 varying across sectors and job roles, increasing demand for ICT skills and job roles to lead and execute automation initiatives.
The increasing importance of cyber security in the business landscape, due in part to new legislative requirements for the protection of personal data, driving demand for data security and privacy awareness skills.
Increased competition, spurring a change in business models among ICT businesses, in turn changing the array of job roles and skills required to deliver services.
The rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN), both in removing the need to maintain legacy internet infrastructure from large telecom companies and in the changing skill needs for the rollout’s transition from implementation to ongoing maintenance and operation of the network itself.

The skills forecast identifies vendor certifications as being widely used and sought after in the ICT industry. A Vendor Certification Working group reporting to the ICT Industry Reference Committee has been established to consider how vendor certifications may be accommodated in the vocational education and training (VET) system. The skills forecast also identifies that higher level qualifications are in demand in the ICT sector, with many ICT VET graduates going on to undertake further training.

The Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Predictions 2019 report produced by Deloitte’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) group highlights 5G, AI, IoT, 3D printing and changing business models in its predictions for the coming years. It is predicted that AI solutions will become increasingly accessible to organisations with less specialised AI skills in the form of "off the shelf" products, but AI skills will still be needed within organisations to ensure the systems meet business needs.

The Gartner CIO Agenda Report 2018 found, based on a survey of more than 3,000 Chief Information Officers, that skills in artificial intelligence, digital security, the ‘Internet of things’ and the use of blockchain topped the list of technologies in which business were seeking new skills. This may provide an insight into the direction of future training, which needs to ensure these skills accessible in the workforce for business.

Malicious cyber activities are a growing challenge for organisations worldwide and Cyber Security is one of the most rapidly growing industries both domestically and internationally.

The Cyber Security Sector Competitiveness Plan (2018 update) by the Australian Cyber Security Network (AustCyber) identifies cyber literacy as a must-have skill for every Australian worker, regardless of occupation. It also identifies a larger than anticipated cyber security skills gap that is acting to the detriment of the cyber security sector. The Competitiveness Plan estimates that domestic Cyber Security sector employment could increase by 12,600 jobs by the year 2026. The top requested work areas in Australian Cyber Security job advertisements over the past year according to the Competitiveness Plan are:

Securely provision
Operate and maintain
Protect and defend
Oversee and govern
Analyse
Investigate
Collect and operate.

The Cyber Security Cross Sector Project Public Paper by PwC’s Skills for Australia also reports an acute demand for Cyber Security Professionals across industry. The paper highlights the following industry trends that are shaping the skills needs of the future Cyber Security workforce:

A critical shortage of skilled Cyber Security Professionals both in Australia and internationally
Industry’s increased dependence on digital technology, the internet of things and protection of digital assets is driving demand for cyber security skills in the workplace
The fast pace of digital and technological change and rapid evolution of cyber-attacks is exposing an increasing number of organisations to cyber threats.

The paper identifies the most in demand cyber security skills as:

Detecting and responding to threats or intrusions as soon as they occur
Identifying and securing potential vulnerabilities
Assessing risks, hazards and vulnerabilities to cyber-attacks in a network or business environment
Implementation of preventative measures against cyber-attacks.

The Cyber Security Cross Sector Project Case for Change, which followed on from the above paper, responds to these issues. It proposes two new basic units for 'Cyber Security Awareness' should be developed, available to a broad range of training packages to improve general cyber security awareness. This is alongside the addition of a 'Cyber threat intrusion/detection and response' skill set at the advanced diploma level, to provide specialist skills in the area. These new developments would complement the replacement of exiting units of competency that contain duplicated or obsolete content. This is to aid the overall goals of identifying and developing common training product to be used across a range of industries to increase cyber security skills.

Links and resources

Below is a list of industry-relevant organisations and associations. Hyperlinks have been included where available.

Relevant research

Australia’s Digital Pulse 2018 – Deloitte Access Economics for the Australian Computer Society

Cyber Security Cross Sector Project Case for Change – PwC’s Skills for Australia

Cyber Security Cross Sector Project Public Paper – PwC’s Skills for Australia

Cyber Security Sector Competitiveness Plan – Australian Cyber Security Growth Network (AustCyber)

Information and Communications Technology IRC’s 2018 Skills Forecast – PwC’s Skills for Australia

Information and Communications Technology IRC’s 2017 Skills Forecast – PwC's Skills for Australia

Data sources and notes

Department of Employment 2018, Employment Projections, available from the Labour Market Information Portal

by ANZSIC, selected industry sub-divisions, employment projections to May 2023
- 57 Internet Publishing and Broadcasting
- 58 Telecommunications Services
- 59 Internet Service Providers, Web Search Portals and Data Processing Services
- 70 Computer System Design and Related Services.

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2018, Employed persons by Industry group of main job (ANZSIC), Sex, State and Territory, November 1984 onwards, 6291.0.55.003 - EQ06, viewed 1 November 2018 http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/6291.0.55.003May%202018?OpenDocument

Employed total by ANZSIC 2 digit, 2000 to 2018, May Quarter
- 57 Internet Publishing and Broadcasting
- 58 Telecommunications Services
- 59 Internet Service Providers, Web Search Portals and Data Processing Services
- 70 Computer System Design and Related Service.

Training data has been extracted from the National VET Provider Collection, Total VET students and courses, 2018 Program Enrolments by:

ICT Information and Communications Technology Training Package
ICT10 Integrated Telecommunications Training Package.

Priority skills data has been extracted from Information and Communications Technology IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast. Each IRC has prioritised and ranked the generic skills.

Job vacancy data have been extracted from Burning Glass Technologies 2019, Labour Insight Real-time Labour Market Information Tool, Burning Glass Technologies, Boston, viewed July 2019, https://www.burning-glass.com.

Data shown represent most requested generic skills and occupations according to internet job postings in Australia between July 2016 and June 2019 filtered by ANZSIC and ANZSCO classification levels listed below.

Generic skills / Occupations
- ANZSCO major groups excluding Sales Workers and Managers
- 700 Computer System Design and Related Services
- 591 Internet Service Providers and Web Search Portals
- 592 Data Processing, Web Hosting and Electronic Information Storage Services
- 580 Telecommunications Services.
Employers
- 2631 Computer Network Professionals
- 2613 Software and Applications Programmers
- 2611 Business and Systems Analysts
- 2247 Management and Organisation Analysts
- 2621 Database and Systems Administrators, and ICT Security Specialists
- 700 Computer System Design and Related Services
- 591 Internet Service Providers and Web Search Portals
- 592 Data Processing, Web Hosting and Electronic Information Storage Services
- 580 Telecommunications Services.

Updated: 31 Mar 2020