SummerTech LIVE Showcasing Victorian Tech Talent

Over summer while most students were relaxing and enjoying the sun, Victorian students were hard at work on digital transformation projects.

The third round of SummerTech LIVE (STL) saw 12 education institutions, 60 projects, 62 business partners and 107 students collaborate to produce solutions to real business problems. Students formed teams and worked with a business and academic mentor to scope the project, identify the problem and recommend solutions over a 10-12 week period. Sounds simple?

The results of their efforts were on display at the STL2019 Showcase, on Tuesday 17 April. More than 120 people attended the Victorian Investment Centre with the views of Melbourne from the 46th floor didn’t distract from the student pitches.

Driving the digital economy

Digital technology is an important sector and a critical enabler of innovation and growth across the Victorian economy. Victoria needs a large, diverse and advanced technology skilled workforce. Within the coming decade, technology jobs are estimated to grow faster than Australia's overall employment growth. 

Recent ABS stats confirm there are over 600,000 small businesses in Victoria and many of them do not have the resources and budget to invest in new technologies in the workplace. Greater than 95% of all businesses in Australia are small businesses, we need to find a work experience model that is coupled with digital upskilling for small business that works at scale. Dominique Fisher, CEO, Paddl Co. shared her insights into the constantly evolving tech market that businesses and graduates must navigate. 

"As chair of the Victorian Government's Innovation Expert panel, we regularly engage with the broader ecosystem to determine what was holding back their growth. The overwhelming findings were that it was people with experience with these new [technology-based] skills including cyber security, data analytics, technical growth marketing, design thinking, collaboative decision making, the list goes on."  Dominique Fisher, CEO, Paddl Co.

Helping small business access tech talent

Small businesses often find it hard to adopt technology as it's daunting; the STL model of collaboration and exploration allows the business to consider the options that a digital approach can offer their business. Running the projects over summer is also deliberate as it’s when small businesses are less busy and can spend some time working with students. Frequently the projects have been on the back burner due to lack of resources which STL can help fill.

Accessing talent is another difficulty businesses face, recruitment is estimated to cost on average $50,000, which often stops an SME from hiring new staff.  STL offers a tangible benefit as it provides an opportunity for students and employers to collaborate with the support of the education institution. Businesses get to meet and work with potential interns and future staff in a low-risk model. Some of these students continue to work with the business post the program — a great result for all parties. 

Providing students meaningful work experience

Getting a job is also hard without work experience, so STL gives practical ‘office time’ which is so hard to get for soon to be graduates. Language and cultural differences are also barriers to employment for students from diverse backgrounds. Speaking to many at the showcase, this feedback is best summed up by this business partner.

“You know we may not have interviewed this student based just on their resume. STL gave us the time to get past their name, to get to know them and understand how they work. Bonus for our team, we got exposure to new skills from the uni that the student and teacher brought to the project. We’re keeping them on as it’s such a boost to our business.” STL Business Partner.

Another program supported by the Victorian Government that students can participate in is the COSBOA Innovation Games (Victoria) 2018/19 run by Paddl Co. The final challenge on May 15th is sponsored by EnergyAustralia. The 5th Innovation Challenge will focus on Assisting business to achieve greater control over energy costs both now and in the future. Applications are now visit open Paddl Co.

 

"The exisiting workforce needs reskilling to meet technology impacts on every part of their business. From products and services development to even the way they hire people. The demand is so great that even students need to find ways to gain real workplace experience whilst still studying if they are to gain meaningful employment at graduation." Dominique Fisher, Founder and CEO of Paddl Co. 

 

Regional education making a difference

Associate Professor, Shy Wei Teng, from Federation University in Gippsland lead a total of 8 projects across regional Victoria. Through programs such as SummerTech LIVE the Victorian Government supported regional SMEs to increase innovation and adopt digital technologies and close the digital divide.

The team selected to pitch, worked with Traralgon-based company, Dystech Australia. The two STL projects contributed to theIR product roadmap development of an app to help educators with the early detection of dyslexia learning disorders.  DAD (Dysgraphia / Dyslexia App Development) and ATAP (Automatic tool to annotate and manage handwritten-text picture database) both used the latest expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to interpret and analyse data.

The Dystech team (pictured above giving their pitch L-R) were Jessica Colantuono, Rowan Farrell and Hasitha Hewawasam. It is also important to acknowledge the academic mentors from Federation University who contributed their time and expertise, Suryani Lim, Shane Moore and Gayan Kahandawa Appuhamillage.

Student pitch = 5 minutes + 3 questions + No PowerPoint!

Teams were nominated by their education institution and had to answer three questions. The final question had the most interesting answers, and some quotes  give an idea of what the STL experience is all about. 

 1) What was the business problem/challenge?

2) What was the solution/outcome?

3) What did you learn/what surprised you?

Stories from the field

“I didn’t know the tech platform the company used; I was worried, but I had to learn it, so I did.”

 

“The business problem was exciting, and it challenged us to find a workable solution as it mattered so much to them.”

 

“Clients don’t always know what they want which makes it hard, but you just work on what you can.”

 

“The data we needed to test the algorithm wasn’t as easily available as we thought so we had to change our whole model.”

 

“I learnt how to really work in a team and how important communication is.”

 

“I am so much more confident now and understand how to work with other people, even if they aren’t in the same course as me, we can find a solution together.”

About SummerTech LIVE 

Our SummerTech LIVE program matches Victorian businesses with tertiary students, to solve their technology problems. Students receive $4,500 for their work on the program. Applications are currently closed but when information is available it will be posted on the website  or contact the STL team. summertechlive@ecodev.vic.gov.au

About COSBOA Innovation Games (Victoria) 2018/19

COSBOA Innovation Games Victoria 2018/19 will involve over 55 businesses, 300 Victorian students and graduates and 200 employees coming together to form diverse innovation teams. Sponsored by the Victorian Statement Government, the COSBOA Innovation Games (Victoria) 2018/19 is a series of 5 one-day innovation challenges across Victoria run by Paddle Co. Each of the five days is supported by a major corporate organisation - including AGL Energy, Australia Post, Canon, GrowthOps and most recently EnergyAustralia!  More info  or apply here.