New University of Canberra online course aims to fill IT skills shortage and diversify revenue

Canberra-based open source technology firm Instaclustr has partnered with the university to deliver an online course to train budding software engineers in Apache Kafka, a widely used yet complicated system which helps businesses modernise their operations.

University of Canberra vice-chancellor Paddy Nixon said the new course was an opportunity to extend the university's reach globally as it looks to find ways to make up for the revenue hit suffered due to the loss of international students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Instaclustr's customer base and developer base is international. By us being able to do online courses with them allows us to reach an international audience with our education offerings," Professor Nixon said.

"The Instaclustr partnership really opens up some avenues for us. They won't be huge and they won't solve our problems but they will certainly build a base and a reputation for the university internationally."

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Instaclustr chief executive Peter Lilley said up to 156,000 digital technology workers would be needed in Australia by 2025.

"Getting access to exactly the right kind of skilled talent that we need to scale and grow our businesses, that is a shortage that's experienced across the entire technology sector."

Mr Lilley said in the past his business had relied partially on skilled migrants in order to grow the business. However, the border closures over the past year had made it more important than ever to train people locally.

The online course costs $2000 and starts on May 25.

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