Entry level salaries up for ICT industry

Peter Dinham
Monday, 05 October 2009 07:19

IT People - Recruitment

Entry level salaries for the ICT industry are up and employers are increasingly looking for staff who are multi-skilled, according to the latest survey of the market by Excom Education.

The annual survey by Excom of 25,000 organisations in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore found that the average entry level salary of IT staff has risen $2,000 in the past year to $38,000, and according to Excom’s chief marketing officer, Cassandra Ashworth, despite the global downturn the demand for trained IT staff is still high.

“Along with the salary increase our students are being placed within 2.5 weeks of completing their course – further vindication that the industry is travelling well.  Enrolments are still strong.  If anything, we have recorded an increased demand for more enrolments for our deluxe and masters programs indicating that students are willing to spend more on their technology education so as to acquire better skills to set them apart from the rest of the pack.”

Ashworth attributes the rise in salary for technology workers to companies being more select in choosing the right candidate and being willing to pay for that.

“Employers are currently looking to do more with less. Having staff with multi skills, knowing how platforms work with each other and the soft skills to articulate to clients is a powerful combination.”

According to Ashworth, the results of Excom’s survey are in line with the recent survey conducted by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council which highlighted that 70 per cent of ICT graduates wish they had undertaken more work experience when at university.

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