The federal government has expanded the scope of Australia’s fledgeling permanent migration scheme for highly-skilled technologists after tripling the program’s intake for this financial year.
The change is contained in a new direction for the two feeder visas used for the ‘Global Talent Independent’ (GTI) program – subclass 858 and subclass 124 – quietly issued last month.
The direction (direction 89) replaces an earlier one outlining the target sectors for the GTI program when it was first launched in November 2019 to attract tech talent from across the globe.
The program initially focused on finding applicants likely to earn more than $153,600 each year in one of seven “future-focused fields”, including cybersecurity, fintech and quantum computing.
But as the new direction reveals, the government is now accepting applicants from 10 target sectors that cover far more ground than the original set of definitions.
Education, tourism and “circular economy” have been added as new sectors.
New target sectors of note are education, tourism and the “circular economy”, while the remaining seven areas are largely an expansion of the original seven.
The remaining seven sectors are resources; agri-food and agtech; energy; health industries; defence, advanced manufacturing and space; Digitech; and financial services and fintech.
They are broadly similar to the former fields, with ‘Digitech’ seemingly covering what was previous ‘quantum information, advanced digital, data science and ICT, as well as cybersecurity.
A spokesperson said that the expanded sectors would “maximise opportunities” to sustain the country’s economic growth while building resilience for future global shocks and creating jobs.
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