A changing landscape of learning

Recently we’ve noticed an increased demand from the private sector – particularly those industries relying on in-field data gathering and organisations that are ‘casual’ users of the now readily available open-source platforms such as QGIS. Interestingly, many joining our courses are completely new to GIS, versus GIS professionals learning new software. This increase in novice users is a trend worth following, especially as GIS expands into new organisations in adjacent industries.

This trend is unfolding alongside a deficit in new geospatial professionals entering the workforce. Recent workforce studies show an average yearly shortfall of about 250 spatial scientists until 2032 in Australia (BIS Oxford Economics for Consulting Surveyors National, 2023), posing a macro-challenge for the industry.

The increase in novice or ‘casual’ users utilising GIS as a supplement to their professions, combined with the lack of professionals, places the industry in an interesting position. GIS ‘skills’ are becoming more attractive and cheaper to acquire than the specialised skillset ‘GIS professionals’ provide.

Casuals vs. Professionals

We see promise in the casual users discovering GIS with each training course. Every course features at least a few ‘light-bulb’ moments where participants realise the potential of GIS in their professional roles. This is why we view GIS training as critical for the industry especially in welcoming new users and champion geospatial decision-making, expanding and broadening the value of this discipline across industries.

Since 2022, 46% of all courses we’ve run have been QGIS related. Most participants want to leverage the platform for their everyday operations, seeking skills tailored to specific upcoming projects and tasks, and more recently upskilling for Qfield and field data collection integration, again to fulfill a specific project need.

There are also some common challenges that students want to overcome:

• Data management – filing accuracy and understanding file formats
• Assessing data accuracy – is it up to date? Is it trustworthy?
• Software licensing – increased costs and limited access to “seats” within GIS
• Filling gaps in learning – self-teaching only providing a snapshot, leaving skill gaps.

What is the potential impact to the geospatial industry?

Self-teaching provides only a narrow lens into the full potential of GIS capabilities. Industry professionals, regardless of their domain, often spend years studying a discipline to build appropriate in-depth knowledge. While open source enables anyone to have access to GIS and associated tools quickly, cheaply and easily, it doesn’t provide a complete depth of knowledge and often leaves GIS teams exposed to inferior outcomes and output.

When it comes down to it, we need to reflect on one very important question: what value do we place on the investment in quality?

As geospatial professionals, we want to place a renewed focus on the importance of quality. Spending one or multiple days, undertaking comprehensive and formal training alongside an industry professional is an investment in the future and is far more effective than ad-hoc online learning from various resources. Well-paced, documented learning alongside seasoned professionals, delivers far greater quality outcomes – tailored to relevant scenarios, providing lessons learned, efficiency insights, and real-life applications. This is the true value of time well spent on the education of the GIS professionals of the future.

Why is it so important?

The geospatial industry provides critical intelligence for a sustainable future. The data collection, cleaning, analysis and visual presentation of data is essential for informing decision-making, enabling us to adapt and build resilience against changes to our environment. So, it’s in our best interest to maintain a high level of standard and quality for the future of our industry.

GIS professionals hold immense value in their ability to communicate complex data and provide geospatially-enabled decision support. Given the skills trade-off occurring in the industry, we see a timely opportunity to re-emphasize the value of these professionals to organisations and highlight the importance of investing in up-skilling casual users. With this re-evaluation in mind, we foresee a positive future with a skills ecosystem that welcomes new users and promotes the value of geospatial intelligence.

How do we help?

Through our introductory, advanced and custom training programs, we offer participants a valuable insight into the world of GIS via ESRI and open-source software, giving them a solid foothold in basic to advanced concepts for further exploration. However, we emphasize that these courses are the start of a casual user’s ‘GIS Journey,’ encouraging them to apply the skills learned in their workplace to expand their GIS knowledge.

If you would like to book in for GIS training, contact us.