A serious shortage of skilled employees is a major factor contributing to a $2 billion trade deficit in Australia’s digital content industry, a leading researcher has claimed.

The digital industry, estimated to be worth $19 billion, includes software, computer games, digital videos, websites and animation – and is suffering from a shortage of graduates with sufficient work and creative business skills.

“We do not have a shortage of talent in this country, but the lack of job skills here is causing many companies to look overseas for their talent,” says Professor Greg Hearn, a researcher with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) at the Queensland University of Technology.

“Considering the digital industry’s vital role in the economy and the fact that it employs 289,000 people, an investment in human resources is essential to develop this sector,” Prof. Hearn says.

The largest survey of its kind ever undertaken in Australia, the ‘60sox project’ was created to investigate the education-to-work transition experiences of 507 aspiring students and graduates in the digital creative industry.

The project also created a space for undergraduates, graduates and industry professionals to contact each other. Aspiring talents were invited to post their creative projects in music, interactive media, digital storytelling and graphic design on the 60sox site for evaluation and feedback from industry professionals. Peers and moderators voted on the best creations.

Professor Hearn says that the skills deficit mainly stems from the gap between what is taught in academia and what is practised in industry. “There is a generally a gap between the qualifications aspiring creatives receive – and the industry-ready skills that employers are looking for,” he says.

“This gives our respondents the impression they have good employability, job-specific and career skills – when the skills that they think are important are not what employers in the industry actually want.”

The other main thing that hinders graduates from gaining employment is their lack of previous engagement with the industry: only 13 per cent of the 60sox respondents had been directly involved with real work in industry.

“Most of digital graduates rely on online networks to get jobs. They need to know that face-to-face networking with the industry is crucial to gain both employment and skills,” says Professor Hearn. “You won’t be able to get a mentoring relationship through Facebook.”

“The industry can also help aspiring students by offering internships, mentoring relationships and by inviting students to take part in industry events.”

Addressing skills is essential, but other important issues in addressing the digital content deficit for companies include developing more sophisticated enterprise structures, gaining access to finance, staying abreast of rapid technological change, growing export markets and, in some cases, connecting directly with audiences, he says.