Australian vendors, recruiters and government agencies arrived in London over the weekend armed with a growing list of IT specialists from the old country needed Down Under, as part of the federal government-hosted Australia Needs Skills expo.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has revealed the latest round of upgrades to its AU$496 million Systems for People initiative will go live in April but analysts believe skills shortages may disrupt the project.
The government yesterday announced plans to bolster Australia's skilled migration program by providing an additional 6,000 places -- potentially a boon for the skills-starved tech industry -- but some believe the scheme doesn't go far enough.
Not enough migrant workers are being hired to work in public service IT, which is contributing to a government-wide ICT skills shortage, according to a report by the Australian Government Information Management Office.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard, introduced the Skills Australia Bill 2008 to Parliament yesterday, with some observers already saying it will bolster the IT industry in fighting the skills crisis.
My interview with the government's ICT skills and professional development taskforce last week shed new light on what exactly is missing in the industry's skills shortage.
With the Australian Dollar breaking the 92 US cents barrier recently, and predictions it could reach parity with the US Dollar by Christmas, there's good news and bad news for the ICT industry.
Today, we exist in an economy where the services sector is the economy.
Everything from cleaning to IT development work is outsourced by governments these days, but should security clearance processes, which dictate what access a person has to government information systems, be included in that bundle?
Post-election adrenaline surging through his veins, one of the first acts performed by new Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was to disband the expert panel that his predecessor Helen Coonan had appointed last June to evaluate tenders for fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) construction.
Whatever happens in the election, government departments at both state and federal levels are facing major changes to how they build and manage their IT infrastructure. Is the answer shared services, an increased focus on SOA, enhanced Web delivery -- or just telling everyone in your department to get a clue?
The average annual salary of an Australian IT professional is currently $82,507, according to an extensive survey of the sector recently conducted by ZDNet.com.au.
An analysis by representatives of Australia's two largest IT industry groups shows that neither political party in the federal election has come up with a comprehensive policy around technology.
The South Australian government is looking at a software overhaul that could see Apple or Red Hat taking over from Microsoft on the state's PCs. Analysts warn, however, skills costs could still lead to a software environment dominated by a single platform.
The question on the lips of most CIOs is no longer whether to send work offshore. It's a question of how much to send.
Defence CIO Greg Farr (part two) talks about outsourcing, the skills crisis and reveals his most urgent IT priority.
In this Super Techies interview, tech star Marc Benioff talks with CNET's Dan Farber about his career as a business entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. Benioff discusses his early work as a programmer for Apple; honing his sales and marketing skills with industry mogul Larry Ellison at Oracle; and his current...
Australia will continue to lose IT inventions and skills to foreign interests because the government has failed to invest in education, says Gartner's government specialist, John Kost.
With the right packet sniffers you can truly lead the dog's life. What's most impressive is network monitoring devices will help you see problems immediately. These tools can aid in analysis, migration, monitoring, security, testing, and administration of the network.
They can print, copy, scan, and fax but can they open tins? We put multifunction devices to the test and find out.
Secrecy seems to shroud the data centre arena -- all well and good for security's sake, but not so great when trying to pick a provider. We pull back the curtains to find what data centre options exist in Australia.
The frequency is changing from wired working to a wireless world. Can this new wave of technology help you gain the cutting edge?
Does your company's human resource management functions need to be automated? We look at what you need to consider, and three packages to help you do it.
Visa CIO touts new transaction technologies
Michael Dreyer, CIO of Visa, expresses what innovation means to him in different areas, such as their PayWave … Watch it now
Australian Govt funds IT start-ups
Google should come clean on datacentres
US shows what OPEL could have been
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Superguide: Printers -- all you need to know
Looking to buy a printer? Our superguide rates the latest printers and shines a light into the industry.
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Storage and server superguide
Over the last decade the art of maintaining the datacentre of a large organisation has evolved into an art form.
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