Investing in technology alone won’t translate into success in the Industry 4.0 era
by Rachel Ranosa
Investing in technology alone won’t translate into success in the Industry 4.0 era. Businesses in Australia first need to address the country’s looming skills gap, findings of a new study revealed.
Amid Australia’s demand for 200,000 technology professionals by 2023, schools are producing less than 5,000 ICT graduates annually, according to a report from Optus Business.
This deficit is called the knowledge economy gap, and researchers recommend businesses, government, and academia share the responsibility of addressing such deficiency.
Without “collaborative planning” between them, “Australia risks widening its ingenuity gap,” Optus Business said.
“Across the next three years, we anticipate big changes when it comes to emerging industries such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, application programming interfaces and next-gen technologies,” said John Paitaridis, Optus Business Managing Director.
Fostering digital skills, digital culture
Enterprise, government, and academia can prepare existing workers and fresh graduates alike for a “digitally driven future” by reskilling and upskilling them.
“Fostering digital skills and a digital culture is essential to success in Industry 4.0,” Paitaridis said.
Optus Business identified key characteristics of organisations that are said to be equipped for Industry 4.0 challenges.
“The most successful businesses in Industry 4.0 will empower employees through greater experimentation and risk-taking, have flatter hierarchies fuelled by collaboration and knowledge sharing, and utilise real-time data capture and analysis,” the group said.
Talent management and development will thus be crucial to addressing Australia’s skills gap.
“To be effective, talent management must be focused on current digital business requirements and prepare for those required in future,” Optus Business said.
“Training programs and collaboration through industry partnerships can equip employees with the required digital skills – formally and informally through on-the-job experience.”