David Masters is an experienced policy influencer who works for Atlassian, one of Australia’s global tech success stories. How is David helping the vocational and education training system deliver better outcomes for learners and employers?

Engagement by business leaders is critical to ensuring workers have the right skills for the big changes in the economy such as the move to net zero and the ongoing investment in digital technologies, according to David Masters, one of the new Independent Directors of the Future Skills Organisation (FSO). 

David is Head of Global Policy and Regulatory Affairs at Atlassian. He is a thought-leader for emerging technology policy and regulatory issues and represents these positions to government.  

“Every business leader I talk to says the biggest challenge is finding more people with the skills they need. So, it's in everyone's interest to make sure the skills and education training system is moving forward and meeting the needs of businesses," he says.  

“We can only do that if we hear from businesses about where they're going and what skills they'll need in the future." 

Having worked across industry for years, David says he has learnt that industry is not a homogenous group of stakeholders. 

“Sometimes there is a desire from government to treat industry like that. However, FSO does it differently, we make it easy to engage and take time to listen to the individual motivations of all participants. In many cases, you understand more from engaging with the outliers than you do with the consensus, even if you disagree with it.” 

HOW THE SAUSAGE IS MADE 

David's career has always been about listening and understanding, “I had a mate who was writing for a technology monthly magazine, so I got a job in tech publishing. I had a fantastic editor who took the time to explain how things work and I got to ask lots of questions to people with lots of experience and listen intently.”

After journalism he worked in government for five years, which was also invaluable: “You can’t really engage in the policy process unless you’ve seen how the sausage is made. It’s not linear, neat or consistent. And I don’t think you’ve done stakeholder management until you’ve had an unhappy stakeholder to deal with.”

Then following his time as Manager of Government Business Strategy at HP Enterprise Services and seven years at Microsoft Australia, where he became Director of Corporate Affairs, he joined Atlassian, working for founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar.

CLEAR PURPOSE 

“The main thing I have learnt from them is to be very, very clear on the purpose of things. They are both incredibly busy people and everything they do has to have a clear objective behind it. So, you must be very crisp and ask what's the outcome you want to achieve and what value are they and the company going to get from their time,” said David.

With his wealth of experience, David brings to the FSO Board his knowledge of the tech and digital space, and his skills in working across government and developing policy advice, business strategy and transformation.

He was also a member and outgoing Chair of the ICT Industry Reference Committee, responsible for the nationally accredited industry training package for the IT, Telecommunications and Digital Media sector.

In addition, he has valuable insights on Vocational Education and Training (VET), training package development, and training providers and registered training organisations.

SKILLS FIRST APPROACH 

Amongst many issues David champions, he says a framework for assessing skills attainment across the system is key to creating training and retraining pathways for future skills.

“This doesn't necessarily mean de-valuing qualifications — they are incredibly important for individual recognition and a demonstration of a commitment to learning. However, if we can better assess and recognise someone's skills within the system, either acquired through formal training/education or through unaccredited or on-the-job training, then we can fast-track someone's ability to obtain new qualifications and formal recognition of their existing skills.

“I think the more we can drive businesses away from simply requiring qualifications to recognition of skills the better. SFIA [the Skills Framework for the Information Age] is a great start but there’s more to do across finance, technology and business as a whole.”

3 QUICK-FIRE QUESTIONS

What's the best advice you’ve been given?  

When I was at Microsoft, the CEO Satya Nadella said: “The learn-it-all does better than the know-it-all.”  This is something I’ve very much taken to heart. I try to listen and learn as much as I can and be humble about the things that I don't know.  

A simple thing that makes you happy?  

Cooking and having people enjoy the meal I’ve prepared. I do most of the cooking in our house. 

What book are you reading currently?  

Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. It’s a technothriller about climate change and a big idea for reversing global warming.