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The Morrison Government is continuing to tackle urgent workforce needs with a new, fast-tracked training qualifications for the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.

The Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash, said that the Government is committed to ensuring Australians are able to learn the latest in digital technology and cyber security to meet current labour demands.

“Upskilling our existing IT workers and making sure that those going into the sector have the right skills needed to address Australia’s ICT challenges and opportunities is imperative.

“The new training products will support the delivery of cyber security and digital skills needs training across multiple industries.

“This package is a successful outcome of the Australian Government working with state and territory governments, as well as Industry Reference Committees and the Digital Skills Organisation Pilot working collaboratively to meet the needs of Australia.”

The new and updated training products were fast-tracked by skills ministers, as well as the Australian Industry and Skills Committee and its COVID-19 sub-committee, which was established to drive rapid and flexible development of vocational education and training products during the COVID-19 crisis.

“The risk has intensified in recent months, with cyber criminals taking advantage of COVID‑19 with increased online fraud, malware and hacking into systems.

“Responding to both COVID-19 and broader industry skills needs, these new skill sets will help address urgent skill needs in the areas of threat detection and prevention, cyber incident response, and cyber security governance.

“Urgent digital skills needs will also be addressed by skillsets in the areas of cloud computing, data analysis and the Internet of things.

The updated qualifications and skill sets are at a Certificate III level to Advanced Diploma level.