Focus on tech

A focus on digital and technical literacy will be central to this year’s Start Up Gippsland program for businesspeople and entrepreneurs.

The four-month course named Tech Startup Skills Incubator will involve 17 participants from Gippsland’s six local government areas – Baw Baw, Bass Coast, East Gippsland, Latrobe City, South Gippsland and Wellington.

Startup Gippsland is funded by the six councils and Launch Vic and delivered by Gipps Tech.

Program director Elena Kelareva said the course was particularly important this year for economic recovery after prolonged drought, bushfires and the COVID pandemic.

She said past participants had cited a lack of a technical cofounder, alongside a lack of funding, as their biggest barrier to business success.

Digital and technical barriers Gippsland businesses face are not so prevalent in the metropolitan regions, Ms Kelareva said.

Business owners will be taught simple “nocode tools” to overcome the barrier and help them make the most of technology to grow their businesses.

This year’s tech Startup Skills program was recently launched in Warragul in the presence of Federal Member for Monash Russell Broadbent, State Member for Eastern Victoria Harriet Shing and Baw Baw Shire mayor Danny Goss.