Thrive has delivered its second iteration of the Tech Academy designed to support the upskilling of communications and marketing professionals.
A lack of skills in Australia serves as a handbrake on growth for many companies and as Cisco highlights, it’s not just a lack of talent, it’s a lack of diversity of talent, in particular women in the sector (Cisco). It’s estimated that the digital skills gap in Australia is costing businesses $3.1 billion annually (RMIT Online and Deloitte Access Economics).
If the skills shortages remains the single biggest inhibitor to business growth in Australia (AIIA) then no doubt PR, marketing and ad agencies too are challenged, yet if marketers and storytellers are equipped, we have the power to accelerate growth in the tech sector and in many other industries that are digitally transforming and have products and services to launch and promote.
We need to overcome barriers to entry for consultants by distilling complex technology information and providing an accessible framework to learn and upskill. That’s why we have developed an industry-first training course to help non-tech people become tech-savvy.
Developed by our Thrive technology comms experts with the exclusive counsel of Thrive partner, journalist and trainer Brad Howarth, we have re-launched the Tech Academy, a 2 day, 8 lesson program that explores public and private sectors across consumer, SMB and enterprise. We unpack technology basics, explore current technology themes and trends, spotlight the visionaries and their advocacy, review the media and policy landscape, and tackle the major issues now and into the future.
Agency partners and our learnings from over two decades have been condensed into the course. We are fortunate to have access to many speakers and recently we were joined by AIIA CEO, Simon Bush, (Australia’s peak representative body and advocacy group for those in the digital ecosystem including major local and global technology businesses) who joined us to discuss key trends, developments and issues that are facing the industry including data privacy, cybersecurity and the digital skills gap.
The Tech Academy will open to industry in 2024.