Wednesday, 25 May 2022

Ministers statements: digital jobs

Ms PULFORD (Western Victoria—Minister for Employment, Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Resources) (12:14): It is my great pleasure to provide the house with a further update on the digital jobs program. The Victorian digital jobs program is a $64 million initiative that is aiming to address Victoria’s digital talent workforce shortage by re-skilling 5000 mid-career Victorians. Participants receive a free 12-week digital skills training course, followed by a paid 12-week internship with industry. Demand for places is incredibly strong, with 14 000 applications received for the first 2000 places. The response from industry has also been incredibly positive, with more than 150 businesses registering to take on placements.

Last week, together with my colleagues and two terrific local members, Will Fowles and Matt Fregon, I visited one of these businesses.

Ms Terpstra: Great local members.

Ms PULFORD: They are great local members. Carnival Homewares in Burwood was founded by Anna Cerdan, together with her sister Penny, some 20 years ago, and they have been importing the most beautiful homewares from India for sale and distribution across Australia. They took on their first digital intern, Yurika, back in April. It is a beautiful tech-intern-to-small-business pairing that this has turned out to be. The business is very positive about their experience with the program and found that having access to a pool of available digital talent simplified the task of finding someone with the skills they needed. A digital intern has been engaged for six months to update and improve the business’s website, which is a really important marketing tool for them and a sales portal to their customers. Even though she has only been in the role for a very short amount of time, Yurika is already considered a valuable staff member, and the business has expressed interest in expanding her responsibilities and employing her on an ongoing basis. The digital jobs program was designed in partnership with industry to build our digital workforce for businesses just like Carnival Homewares and to create opportunities for Victorians like Yurika. (Time expired)