If you are an avid news follower like me, you would have heard mentions of Charles Sturt University yesterday. Here at Charlie, we are all about promoting our student voice – the things that concern the university’s most valued members – in a way that will make sense to budding lawyers, journalists, sport scientists and everyone in between.
IBM Australia is essentially a tech company focussed on “designing and implementing a sustainable future”. Charles Sturt University has secured a multi-year partnership with IBM Australia with the premise of supporting local jobs creation, provide new career pathways for students and accelerate digital skills development in regional NSW.
At the very centre of this partnership is the proposed creation of a new IBM Client Innovation Centre (CIC), with its regional hub based in Bathurst.
When the CIC is up and running, it will employ in excess of 300 professionals, and support IBM Australia’s client demand across Australia, delivering technical expertise and ‘hot skills’ in areas such as data science, cyber security, artificial intelligence (AI) and hybrid cloud.
The partnership also includes plans for scholarships offered to Charles Sturt students. This will give individuals, like yourself, the opportunity to participate in meaningful industry work experience at the CIC. It is hoped this will fast-track student’s post study employment opportunities.
Because you can never stop learning, IBM Australia will assist Charles Sturt in strengthening their applications of and research capabilities in cybersecurity, data and digital services.
Watch out prospective students as IBM Australia will also assist in co-creating courses focused on the intersection of technology and business transformation.
Charles Sturt alumni and Bathurst Council electee, Benjamin Fry, says “Modern students must be digitally skills literate to be able to fully contribute to and participate in our future digital economy.”
“This partnership between IBM, NSW Government and Charles Sturt University will be key to providing deeper, more relevant experience that will better equip students to enter today’s workforce.”
Describing the partnership as “historic” for regional NSW, Mr Fry is excited by, “the wealth of opportunities for Charles Sturt University’s students, teaching staff and researchers.”
“The fact that it will be located in Bathurst is a cherry on top for me”, Mr Fry added.
Don’t be frightened by the scale of this announcement! It will truly has so many benefits in store for regional NSW. If the past informs the present, this is what we have to look forward to:
“In December 2020 IBM Australia celebrated 25 years of a similar partnership with Federation University in regional Victoria. A Western Research Institute report showed that partnership contributed $629 million in economic value to the Victorian economy between 2018-2019 and that IBM’s presence delivered $124 million to the state’s gross product, plus 711 jobs and $62 million in household income”, said Charles Sturt University Vice Chancellor and President Professor Renee Leon PSM.
If you are as intrigued as I am and want to find out more information, simply head to news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/.
