NZTech Inform – skills for our digital future

Tech skills shortages continue to plague NZTech’s members and New Zealand’s greater tech sector. As a result the issue is consuming a substantial amount of our time and effort as a team. This includes addressing the issue from both an educational and immigration perspective. Unfortunately there is no quick fix or silver bullet for this issue and it’s a phenomenon being felt globally.

From an immigration perspective almost all tech roles are on the Green List, which helps create an easier pathway to residency. As an employer you will need to be accredited and you can learn more about the Green List here.

Work is also underway to encourage more students into tech courses and career pathways. The recent Budget included investment in the domestic Tech Story. This will leverage the successful Government/Industry partnership that developed our international tech story, See Tomorrow First.

Meanwhile, as part of the Government’s KiwiSaaS initiative, a focus area addresses pathways into critical roles for successful SaaS companies. Toi Mai, the tech workforce development council, is also exploring pilot apprenticeships and other new pathways. 

Great programmes will be developed from great data! In 2021, the second Digital Skills report was published, based on 2019 data. However, since then, plenty has changed. This week I am in Wellington to discuss what data would be most valuable for our decision makers for an updated Digital Skills report.  What skills are truly in short supply? Can we build any of these in New Zealand? What barriers need to be removed to help more people transition into valuable tech roles?

Please let me know if you have any insights that may be worth capturing in our updated report. Let’s focus our energy for a bigger, better outcome!

Ngā mihi 
Graeme Muller
CEO
NZTech