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Note – This post is an opinion and sharing piece only

• This post is a reflection of this article https://www.computerweekly.com/blog/When-IT-Meets-Politics/How-do-we-ease-the-pain-of-transition-from-a-skills-system-that-fails-employees-and-employers
• I write about how the IT industry and education systems can better prepare future IT professionals

• What we’re not getting right (imo)
  • Teaching actual IT
    • E.g. Systems, tools, programs
    • We’re too narrow when we teach and deliver IT related topics (not subjects)
  • Building actual tech and IT knowledge
    • I’m not referring to coding, programming or STEM
    • I’m referring to the entire IT ecosystem
      • E.g. front end (i.e. websites, apps) connects to middleware/api’s/3rd party systems then connects to backend systems (i.e. databases, cloud systems etc)
        • Explaining how apps open on a tablet or mobile device, how it connects / collects data to show the user what they want to see
        • Going into detail the art of troubleshooting (yes it is an art)
      • How does one explain and define these concepts to K-12 students
    • Introducing the IT ecosystem early in a students development
  • Not building enough apprenticeship / traineeship pathways into IT
    • The industry is a practical industry not a theoretical one
      • Too much focus on classroom work and not enough hands on practice on IT systems, tools, programs
  • Creating dumbed / simplified down versions of current IT systems (E.g. ticketing systems, cloud, API’s, phone apps) and creating a learning journey around these IT systems
    
• Challenges
  • Costs
  • Affordability
  • Lack of IT users entering the teaching industry
    • Lack of a pathway?
    • Lack of industry professionals providing mentoring
    • Lack of tech companies getting involved in discussion on how to implement IT in the K-12 level
  • Willingness from society
    • Does our culture foster this want to develop the next IT professional or we’re ok to continue to lean and use methods like outsourcing
  • Biases
    • Are we still using demographics as a reason why some are in the tech industry and other’s are not?

Summary:

• There’s no silver bullet to addressing our lack of tech professionals
  • The latest readings for 2025 high school grads in Victoria, Australia show only 2000+ are looking to enrol in a tech course in first round university offers, oppose to 9,000+ wanting to enter health and 10000+ wanting to enter society and culture
    • (https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/health-on-the-rise-but-students-turning-off-it-in-first-round-of-university-offers-20251222-p5npf5.html)
• As we move towards a maturing AI landscape, we have new data centres coming online to compliment the AI trend, a maturing cloud computing sector and a thirst to ever consume digital content
  • The question remains will we have enough IT professionals to support what we want moving forward?