Infosys signs on for Victorian digital reskilling jobs initiative
The Victorian government has launched a $64 million digital reskilling program aimed at mid-career professionals, with professional services firm Infosys among the participating hosts.
ICT consulting and services firm Infosys has been named alongside a number of other leading organisations as a founding participant in the Victorian government’s $64 million Digital Jobs program, which will subsidise the rapid training of 5,000 mid-career professionals looking to switch to roles in the digital segment. Alongside AWS, MYOB and Salesforce among others, Infosys will take on a number of paid interns who have completed the course.
Under the program, participants will undergo a cost-free twelve-week training course delivered by reputable educators including RMIT Online and the University of Melbourne and in areas such as analytics, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, before taking up a paid internship with a participating host organisation. Trainees will be supported through a $5,000 wage subsidy, with the first 450 set to take up industry placements next month.
“We’re supporting mid-career Victorians to gain in-demand qualifications because we know they have a wealth of experience and skills to offer Victorian businesses,” said Jaala Pulford, Minister for Innovation and the Digital Economy. “We know the demand for digital talent is increasing rapidly, and the Digital Jobs program has been designed in partnership with industry to build our digital workforce and create new opportunities for Victorians.”
Andrew Groth, regional head for Infosys in Australia and New Zealand, stated that the firm would offer two dozen twelve-week placements over the next six months. “As part of the program, we are offering 25 participants, to begin with, an opportunity to gain in-demand digital skills in areas including cloud, cloud platforms and Agile DevOps. The participants will partake in our InStep internship program, and have access to Infosys’ digital learning platform LeX.”
Host companies, subject to a growing skills shortage further exacerbated by Covid-19 (prior to the pandemic, Deloitte forecast the need for an additional 33,000 digital technology workers in Victoria by 2024), will of course also gain access to digitally-trained and already experienced talent, with positions in the program to be offered through a competitive application process. ANZ, another participant, has signed on to offer 30 placements across the state.
“Employees who come to us from other roles bring professional skills and experiential diversity which can help us think differently about solutions for our customers and staff,” the bank’s group executive for talent and culture, Kathryn van der Merwe, a former Bain & Company vice president, told the AFR. “They are also more likely to have the skills and soft skills that position them for a faster career trajectory than people who are just starting out in their careers.”
The launch of the three-year re-skilling initiative, which is open to applicants Victoria-wide aged 30 and over and from any industry and background, follows on from a pilot conducted earlier this year with 200 partakers, and is similar in model to other programs overseas seeking to address the digital-skills gap.
Singapore’s professional services industry roadmap, which aims to add 5,500 new tech-focussed jobs per year, has previously attracted the likes of Deloitte and Boston Consulting Group.
