Right skills—Building capacity and capability

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• Introduction
• Key findings
• ICT specialisation shortages
• Potential APS capability shortages
• Technical complexity of job role in next three years
• Capability improvement
• Learning and development priorities identified by current APS employees
• Learning and development priorities of current employees identified by agencies
• Integrated Leadership System
• Development measures

Tables and figures

• Figure 1; Criticality of ICT job roles for achievement of agency’s business objectives in 2008–09.
• Table 1: Results of the DEEWR ICT recruitment agency survey - ICT specialisations in shortage by state and territory, and nationally.
• Figure 2: Potential capability shortages in agency in next three years.
• Figure 3: Employee views on technical complexity.
• Table 3: Forecasts of qualifications by ICT occupation group 2009 (per cent)
• Table 4: Forecasts of qualifications by ICT occupation group 2012 (per cent)
• Table 5: Forecasts of qualifications by ICT occupation group 2014 (per cent)
• Figure 4: Improvements to ICT capabilities in next 12 months identified by agencies.
• Figure 5: Improvements to ICT capabilities next three years identified by agencies.
• Figure 6: Leadership development needs in the next 12 months
• Figure 7: General development needs by classification.
• Figure 8: Top three learning and development priorities for ICT employees in 2009–10 – All agencies.
• Figure 9: Agencies that use the Integrated Leadership System (ILS) to guide development of ICT employees.
• Figure 10: Measures offered in terms of development for ICT employees in 2008–09 – All agencies.

Introduction

What ICT capabilities are critical to agency performance? Are agencies experiencing difficulties recruiting these or other ICT job roles? Do agencies know the ICT skills and capabilities of their existing workforce, including employees not currently in an ICT role?  What learning and development opportunities are essential to maintaining currency of individual employees’ skills? What skills can’t be developed in‑house?

These are just some of the questions that the APS—at a whole‑of‑government and individual agency level—will need to consider to ensure that it has an ICT workforce with the right skills to meet current and future ICT requirements. Building capacity and capability examines key ICT roles and expected capability gaps that will need to be addressed to meet the Government’s priorities.

Key findings

• Highest areas of growth in the Australian ICT workforce are procurement/management, client support/education /security, and software engineering.
• The proportion of employees in the ICT sector with qualifications is expected to increase from 82 per cent in 2009 to 94 per cent in 2014.
• Small agencies anticipate almost a 25 per cent increase in the size of their ICT workforce over the 12 months to 30 June 2010.
• Demand for critical roles does not match the current supply of skilled ICT labour.

Critical ICT roles in 2008-09

The ICT roles ranked by 2009 APS agency survey respondents as critical to the achievement of agency business objectives in 2008–09, were:

• strategic leadership—82 per cent
• systems administration—74 per cent
• security—67 per cent
• networks and telecommunications—74 per cent
• databases—72 per cent
• information/knowledge management—32 per cent
• quality assurance—26 per cent
• training & development—21 per cent

ICT specialisation shortages

The 2009 DEEWR recruitment agency survey, undertaken by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, found a national shortage of two ICT specialisations in March 2009: Siebel and Oracle E‑Business Suite.

Table 1: Results of the DEEWR ICT recruitment agency survey - ICT specialisations in shortage by state and territory, and nationally

ICT specialisation	NSW	VIC	QLD	SA	WA	ACT	National
Source: Overview of the 2009 ICT Research Program: Methodology and Findings, September 2009
DB2						X
Oracle (database products)
MS Access
Microsoft SQL Server				X
Data Warehousing	X			X
Java	X			X
J2EE	X			X
Javascript				X
C++/C#/C				X
.Net technologies
Advanced Web design	X			X
ASP				X
Perl	X
XML
Lotus Notes
SAP		X	X	X		X
PeopleSoft			X	X
Siebel	X	X	X	X		X	X
Oracle E-Business Suite	X	X		X		X	X
Unix				X
Windows (all versions)				X
Solaris				X
Linux
HP-UX
Project Management
Systems analysis				X
Business analysis
Network security/ Firewall/Internet security	X			X		X
Risk management	X
CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional)	X		X	X		X
GIS (e.g. Mapinfo)		X		X

Potential APS capability shortages

The two highest responses from APS ICT employees regarding capability or skills shortages in their agency in the three years to 30 June 2012 were strategic leadership (35 per cent) and systems analysis/design (27 per cent).

SES employees indicated that they believed there would be shortages in the next three years in almost half of the ICT skills listed below. These employees were more likely than employees at other classification levels to see a shortage in strategic leadership, program/project management, business process analysis/design, procurement and vendor relations, and testing skills, in the next three years.

When asked to elaborate on the capability gaps the SES employees identified, seven broad themes emerged:

• not enough staff with the required expertise;
• ICT processes/organisation/culture;
• lack of leadership/good management/planning;
• continuity problems/staff turnover/difficulty recruiting;
• insufficient training/development;
• general capacity/capability shortfalls; and
• budget/funding issues.

Technical complexity of job role in next three years

Compounding the impact of the potential capability shortages identified in the APS survey, two-thirds of APS ICT employees thought it was likely that the technical complexity of their primary ICT job role would increase in the next 1-3 years.

Capability improvement

The Centre for the Economics of Education and Training at Monash University environmental scan, 2009 noted that in the next 5 years, additional numbers of people with the appropriate tertiary or vocational qualifications will be required in ICT occupations if the qualifications profile projected for 2014 is to be achieved. This actual number will be higher than the projected figure due to growth in employment and shifts in the structure of employment towards more skilled jobs. This is in addition to the need to replace qualified people  who leave these occupations, net of those who return.

The total requirements for qualifications in ICT occupations is expected to be about 131,000—consisting of 67 per cent with higher education qualifications and 33 per cent with VET qualifications. New ICT entrants, with qualifications at these levels, are expected to make up nearly three-quarters of all requirements, while the rest are expected to be met by existing workers upgrading their qualifications.

The higher demand for people with qualifications than the total number required will reduced the degree to which there are skill gaps within occupations—i.e. the employment of people who are inadequately qualified for the jobs they currently hold.

The qualifications profile of the future ICT workforce will not only depend on changes in the industrial and occupational structure of employment, but also on the extent of skills deepening within occupations.

Table 2: Forecasts of qualifications by ICT occupation group 2009 (per cent)

	Level of highest non-school qualification
Occupation group	Postgrad	Grad dip/cert	Bachelor	Adv dip/dip	Cert III/IV	Cert I/II	None	Total
Source: The Centre for the Economics of Education and Training at Monash University environmental scan, 2009.
ICT	13	5	40	13	8	4	18	100
Sys & infrastructure	8	2	40	13	10	2	24	100
Data networks	7	3	44	15	7	3	22	100
Telecommunications	9	3	16	13	13	10	36	100
Software engineering	19	4	60	8	2	1	6	100
Digital content del/pub	4	2	40	19	9	2	24	100
Client supp/edu/security	11	3	30	18	13	2	23	100
Systems analysis	15	6	35	8	6	9	20	100
Procurement/management	17	12	34	13	13	3	7	100
Quality assurance/testing	11	11	11	12	0	18	38	100
Database sys/info man	8	2	40	13	10	2	24	100
Non-ICT	5	3	18	10	19	4	41	100
All	5	3	18	10	19	4	41	100

 

Table 3: Forecasts of qualifications by ICT occupation group 2012 (per cent)

	Level of highest non-school qualification
Occupation group	Postgrad	Grad dip/cert	Bachelor	Adv dip/dip	Cert III/IV	Cert I/II	None	Total
Source: The Centre for the Economics of Education and Training at Monash University environmental scan, 2009.
ICT	16	5	42	14	9	5	10	100
Sys & infrastructure	9	2	41	14	11	3	20	100
Data networks	8	2	45	15	7	6	16	100
Telecommunications	9	3	16	14	12	12	34	100
Software engineering	21	4	61	8	3	3	1	100
Digital content del/pub	6	2	40	22	10	5	15	100
Client supp/edu/security	14	3	33	22	15	2	13	100
Systems analysis	17	6	36	9	6	18	8	100
Procurement/management	22	12	38	16	13	0	0	100
Quality assurance/testing	12	10	11	13	0	37	17	100
Database sys/info man	9	2	41	14	11	3	20	100
Non-ICT	6	3	19	12	20	3	37	100
All	6	3	20	12	20	4	36	100

 

Table 4: Forecasts of qualifications by ICT occupation group 2014 (per cent)

	Level of highest non-school qualification
Occupation group	Postgrad	Grad dip/cert	Bachelor	Adv dip/dip	Cert III/IV	Cert I/II	None	Total
Source: The Centre for the Economics of Education and Training at Monash University environmental scan, 2009.
ICT	17	5	43	15	8	6	6	100
Sys & infrastructure	10	2	41	15	11	4	17	100
Data networks	9	2	46	16	7	8	12	100
Telecommunications	10	3	17	15	12	12	32	100
Software engineering	23	4	61	9	3	1	0	100
Digital content del/pub	7	2	40	24	11	6	11	100
Client supp/edu/security	16	2	35	24	16	2	5	100
Systems analysis	18	6	37	9	7	24	0	100
Procurement/management	25	11	40	18	6	0	0	100
Quality assurance/testing	13	10	11	14	0	50	3	100
Database sys/info man	10	2	41	15	11	4	17	100
Non-ICT	7	3	20	13	21	3	34	100
All	7	3	21	13	21	3	33	100

The 2009 APS agency survey asked agencies to indicate where capability improvements were required—both for their current ICT workforce, and for new employees entering the APS ICT workforce in the 12 months to 30 June 2010.

At least half of agencies indicated that some improvement was required for each job role, primarily through improved capability, or improving capability and recruitment. Only a small proportion of agencies indicated they would be depending on recruitment alone to meet the required capabilities for any particular job role.

For small agencies, there was less of a need for either improving the capabilities of current employees, or recruiting new employees for any particular job role, according to the feedback received in the survey.

Large agencies saw the greatest need to improve ICT capabilities via targeting their current workforce and recruiting new ICT employees.

For the 3 years to 30 June 2012, the expected capability improvement for each job role was generally higher across all agencies, compared to their 12-month expectations. Most of the increase expected to occur through the combination of increasing the capabilities of the current ICT workforce and recruiting new ICT employees.

For small agencies, improving the capabilities of current ICT employees was seen as more important than it was for the 12-month period, while large agencies saw an even greater need for combining improvements to their current workforce with the recruitment of new ICT employees, than they did for the 12-month period.

Learning and development priorities identified by current APS employees

At least 50 per cent of APS employees nominated each of the five Integrated Leadership System (ILS) capability areas as a high priority for their leadership development in the next 12 months.

There was some variation between classification levels in the capability areas that were identified as a high priority. However, employees at all classification levels (except EL 2 staff) were most likely to nominate communicates with influence as a high priority. EL 2 employees were most likely to nominate supports/shapes strategic thinking as a high priority.

Employees were also asked about the type of training that would help them improve their performance in the next 12 months.

• SES employees were more likely than employees at other classification levels to nominate leadership, public administration and corporate training.
• EL employees were more likely to nominate leadership training.
• APS 5–6 employees were more likely to nominate ICT-related training.
• APS 1–4 employees were more likely to nominate interpersonal skills and self-management training.

There was some variation between job roles in the type of training that employees thought would assist them in improving their performance over the next 12 months, for example:

• employees in strategic leadership roles were most likely to select leadership training (77 per cent); and
• employees in development and programming roles were most likely to select ICT-related training (77 per cent).

Leadership and ICT-related training tended to be the two areas of training most commonly selected across most job roles.

Learning and development priorities of current employees identified by agencies

The most important learning and development priorities across all agencies for their ICT workforce in 2009–10 were ICT-related specialist/technical skills (80per cent of agencies) and leadership (56per cent of agencies).

• These two areas were particularly high priorities for large agencies (92per cent for specialist/technical skills and 79per cent for leadership.
• Just over half of medium agencies (55per cent) reported that business was a priority training area for their ICT workforce.

Integrated Leadership System

Just over half of all APS agencies (55per cent) use the Integrated Leadership System to guide the development of their ICT employees, with usage most common in large agencies (87per cent).

Reasons provided by agencies for the ILS not being used for ICT employees included:

• the agency uses its own standards (often similar to the ILS profiles);
• a lack of understanding/awareness of the ILS, or the advantages it may have for ICT staff;
• a preference of ICT staff to concentrate on technical professional development rather than ILS courses; and
• a lack of relevancy to the ICT staff.

Development measures

Around half of all agencies offered the following measures for the development of their ICT employees in 2008–09: development programmes (both agency-specific and general); mentoring/personal sponsorship; coaching; and/or structured individual learning agreements.

Other measures included:

• Communities of practice;
• Performance support plans;
• Studies assistance; and
• External and professional courses (primarily technical).