ICT Careers: Willy Wonka and the Google factory

James Riley
Monday, 27 July 2009 12:40

Your IT - Home IT

In what must be a kind of Geek version of the Willy Wonka tale (as if the chocolate factory weren’t geeky enough), Google is offering 40 students and their parents a rare look behind the scenes at the company’s Sydney Googleplex.

Just a decade ago, it would have been hard to imagine how a tour of a software company’s Aussie operation might be any more appealing to teenagers than a trip to the dentist. But this is Australia’s Generation Z, the teenagers who put the tech sector at the top of their career ambitions.

The Google offer (a 25-words or less kind of deal on why IT is cool) was announced at the official National ICT Careers Week launch, and offers a “tour behind the scenes of innovation and Geekdom at play.” The parents will probably be more interested in what BRW magazine’s “best place to work” looks like.

Meanwhile, the Australian Computer Society and peak research agency National ICT Australia (NICTA) have announced a National ICT Prize for high school students, where years 10 to 12 students have a chance to win prizes from a total pool of $5,000, with top prize being an ICT internship inside NICTA's research laboratories.

“Offering school students the opportunity to contribute to dynamic, world-class ICT research projects is a powerful way to engage them with tertiary-level ICT study and participation in the digital economy,” said NICTA's education director, Tim Hesketh.

Hosted by the ACS and the Australian Information Industries Association, National ICT Week aims to lift the profile of the technology sector at a time when its profile has never been higher.

Young people were already connected to the network from a sophisticated user perspective. But the National Broadband Network announcement changed everything, according to the ACS, opening the eyes of many to the real career prospects within the digital economy.

“Today's students will enter a vastly different world by the time they graduate,” ACS chief executive Sam Burrell said.
“The pace of globalisation, technological change and the impact of the global financial crisis will vastly alter the demands on Australia's economy.”

“The digital economy has been earmarked as having the potential to become the new economic engine room for Australia. What this means for the emerging workforce is that there will be numerous and diverse job opportunities available for high school students and university graduates within this economic sector,"Mr Burrell said.

The Commonwealth, having earmarked $43 billion for a National Broadband Network, has identified ICT skills as a priority for the development of the digital economy. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy calls ICT professionals a “national resource” and the “foundation of our national digital economy.”