Growing a new generation of Australian talent
4-minute read
Australian businesses, like nbn, can play a major role in delivering the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills the nation needs.
The future of the global economy is rapidly being reshaped, with 1.1 billion jobs expected to be radically transformed by technology in the next decade, according to the World Economic Forum.
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills will be key in successfully navigating the transformation and ensuring Australia's future prosperity. It's predicted that, in the coming years, around 75 per cent of all new jobs will require STEM skills.
Yet while the need to upskill Australia in STEM is pretty clear, there is a growing concern that we aren't producing enough STEM graduates to meet the demand that exists today.
As the Department of Education says, "the gap between the knowledge generated in the education system and the skills demanded by employers and individuals is widening".
The need to grow access to STEM education and increase the number of STEM-capable graduates has also been flagged by many leading national bodies, including Ai Group and Engineers Australia.
To help fix these gaps and build better pathways to Australia's STEM future, businesses -- including nbn -- must play a part.
Nurturing the STEM skills Australia needs
Thankfully, there are plenty of things that Australian businesses can do to help tackle the STEM skills problem. Many involve working with our universities, schools, TAFEs and other institutions.
For example, as businesses working in technology and engineering related fields, we can lend support by providing materials to teachers and making our experts available to help develop curriculums that include real-world expertise and industry best practice.
We can offer work experience, scholarships, internship programs and mentoring to help STEM students and graduates understand our industries, see the great opportunities that STEM careers offer, and to help graduates find their feet when they begin employment.
An example of this is nbn's partnership with the University of Technology Sydney's Wanago Program.
An initiative of UTS' Faculty of Engineering and IT, Wanago aims to help students from under-represented groups that don't have access to STEM subjects at their high schools. Wanago graduates are offered direct entry into the faculty's undergraduate courses.
nbn recently hosted more than 150 Wanago students in years 11 and 12 at our Discovery Centre in North Sydney, helping give students a taste of the exciting careers that await them in Australia's burgeoning STEM economy.
People from across nbn participated in the visits, helping the students learn about our pioneering broadband network, engineering practices, cybersecurity, generative artificial intelligence and careers in technology.
It's not just the participants that benefit from programs like these – as a business, we also benefit from our partnerships with the education sector.
Another nbn-UTS collaboration, the ASTRID (Advancing STEM, Technology Research, Innovation and Deployment) program is establishing a new research team focused on improving technology in the nbn® network and the Australian telecoms sector more generally.
As UTS says, "the partnership also aims to attract more people – specifically women in STEM fields – into the telecommunications sector by giving students the opportunity to work on a continent-sized piece of vital national infrastructure".
Breaking down STEM career barriers
As businesses, we should also be finding ways to remove the barriers that make it difficult for parts of our Australian community to engage with STEM education and careers.
We have to ensure that STEM education and careers are open to Australians of all socio-economic backgrounds, as well as groups that have traditionally struggled to access tertiary education, including First Nations peoples.
Women are also still greatly under-represented in STEM careers and education -- a truly disappointing state of affairs in 2024. According to the federal government's 2023 edition of the STEM Equity Monitor, women make up only 37 per cent of enrolments in university STEM courses. And a mere 15 per cent of jobs in Australia that require a STEM qualification are held by women.
Helping build a better STEM future
At nbn, we know we can do much more than provide great wholesale internet services to support Australia's future. Our expertise, technology and partnerships with industry leaders, like Nokia and Ericsson, also mean we're ideally placed to play a role in lifting the nation's STEM capability.
We want to make sure that everyone gets the chance to undertake STEM study and pursue STEM careers, including groups that have traditionally been under-represented.
We want to build on the success that we've had with programs like ASTRID and Wanago to help build the STEM workforce that Australia needs.
We've joined the Australian Academy of Science's Women in STEM Decadal Plan Champions program, becoming the first government business enterprise to do so. As our 2023 annual report notes, we're also committed to building a pipeline of female leadership talent within the tech industry.
The need to build our STEM skills base in Australia is clear and, as we head into this exciting future, nbn is committed to helping make sure all Australians get the opportunity to play a role in building our STEM capability as a nation.