Online education is bridging the tech skills gap: Macquarie University

As the war for talent rages, business leaders are upskilling to stay abreast of industry changes.

Digital Nation Australia spoke to Yvonne Breyer, deputy dean education and employability at Macquarie Business School, part of Macquarie University. She said online education has opened the door for leaders to improve their knowledge and skill set in these areas.

“What we need in terms of online education is for business leaders to recognise that online education is really impactful and is valuable,” said Breyer.

“We need to work on further assuring these credentials so that when women or anyone else, undertake these credentials, that they're actually recognised by the industry and that we kind of take away that stigma of ‘Oh, that was only online’, because nowadays online education and education has almost become synonymous.”

According to the Coursera Global Skills Report for 2021, Australian technology skills rank in 44th place with only 61 percent proficiency, with the strongest challenges seen across the business and technology domains.

The report highlights that Australia has fallen behind the rest of the region in terms of business agility, technology skills and communications infrastructure.

Breyer suggests that pathways need to be clearer between education and employment opportunities, where platforms like Coursera can assist.

While upskilling on the hard and soft skills is always useful, Breyer stresses that without self-reflection, leaders will be hard-pressed to determine which areas to direct their focus.

“The key here for leaders in general is to practice self-development and self-reflection on an ongoing basis to be able to actually identify, ‘Well, where are my gaps? Where am I not confident, or where do I need to perhaps learn some more and to be vulnerable enough and curious enough to actually conduct that learning?’

"Then it's a matter of the platforms having a good enough system in place that allows leaders or anyone really to find those gaps and those skills that will fill their gaps,” she said.

“And then they can deep dive for a brief period of time into those particular areas and fill those gaps. But self-reflection, I think is the first.”