Plan to save IT from geekville THE new national school curriculum and recent advances in educational technology, such as MOOCs, could be the salvation of ICT in attracting more and better students, says Leon Sterling, president of the Australian Council of Deans of ICT (ACDICT). Admitting there had been many attempts over the past decade or so to address the industry's geeky image, he said the deans" new plan of action has a real chance of producing results. This time there is a much stronger sense of co-operation between industry, universities, schools and government. There was debate for some time as to whether there was a skills shortage or not. Now we know there is and we have to do something about it," said Professor Sterling. Two weeks ago, a major report from the Australian Workplace and Productivity Agency, said that the IT workforce was projected to grow by more than 33,000 workers, or 7 per cent, by 2017, skills shortages were forecast to reach critical levels. The report also revealed that there were almost double the number of IT professionals who came to Australia on 457 visas in 2012 than graduated from Australian universities. The AWPA report put much of the blame on schools which taught IT in such boring and out-dated ways that they only served to turn off potential interest. The timing of the new national curriculum is good - people are thinking about what should be in the curriculum and how it should be taught. Everyone agrees on that," said Professor Sterling. He said advances in technology, including MOOCs, also had the potential to attract a new breed of IT professional. They were also very concerned about attracting women and high-quality school leavers. Professor Sterling said industry was engaged in the plan - and not before time. He said it was unhelpful that industry was quick to complain about the lack of quality, work-ready graduates but had not been prepared to get involved in the education process. To maximise our domestic ICT capability and address the skills shortage for the long term, industry needs to be committed to and to invest more in the education process before and after the moment of graduation.