A new database of Internet Things (IoT) courses developed by IoT Alliance Australia, the Holmes Institute and Future Skills Organisation will be launched tomorrow in Sydney.

The IoT Course Database, to be launched at the IoTAA State of the Nation event at the Sydney Startup Hub on October 10, aims to make it easier to find IoT-related courses and help educators "reach the right audience".

Finding courses to help gain and update skills in managing real-time data, such as IoT data, is “like looking for a needle in a haystack”, according to the IoTAA.

“IoT courses are fragmented and often incorporated into other subject areas, which makes finding them both difficult and time-consuming,” it stated.

The database’s scope will range from micro-credentials to postgraduate degrees from the likes of private colleges, public universities, and industry certification. The IoTAA plans to work with education providers to keep the database up to date.

Australia’s “whole workforce needs to be digitally literate” and “higher level digital skills are in increasing demand”, notes the inaugural Jobs and Skills Report 2023 published this month by Jobs and Skills Australia.

“Significant skill gaps exist in this area,” the report states.

IoTAA CEO Frank Zeichner recently spoke to IoT Hub about the “chronic need for better skills”.

“That's not just skills in development. There's skills in operation in integration, in how [IoT is] used and how it's explained, it's how it's built into products,” he said.

“You don't need to be an expert in full stack development. You need to understand its application.”

“We need to lift everybody to understand – that's the corporate people, that's the customer people, that's the operations people.”

Frank Zeichner and industry leaders will discuss a “data smart Australia” at the IoTAA State of the Nation event at the Sydney Startup Hub in York Street Sydney, from 3.30pm-7.30pm on October 10, 2023 (buy tickets here).

Panel sessions and presentations will cover trends, challenges and opportunities around the need for trusted data to achieve Australia’s net zero and economic ambitions.