The other day on the way from yet another airport to yet another hotel, I was chatting with the taxi driver who was interested in what I did. Inevitably, the taxi driver was not really a taxi driver, but just doing it as casual work while he looked for a real job. He had a degree in electrical engineering, but like a lot of young people was finding it hard to get that first job since he lacked experience.

His story isn’t unusual — according to The Smith Family’s Dr Lisa O’Brien, Australia (like other countries) is facing record youth unemployment, with many candidates lacking job-ready skills. Now having that university degree is probably going to help, but even this is no longer a guarantee of employment without experience.

So what has this got to do with Open Source?

Put simply, getting involved in an open source project is a great way for anyone to show that they can contribute in a meaningful way, work well with others, and develop skills and experience that can be directly transferred to a work environment.

The barrier to entry for open source projects is very low — you just need to show an interest in getting involved. In fact, it’s not even necessary to be a proficient coder: open source projects often have more need of usability testers and documentation writers than programmers.

Although higher education can help with developing programming and project management skills, many open source projects have contributors who have not yet graduated or may not yet even be of university age.

The results can be quite dramatic: open source companies like SUSE frequently recruit new developers from the ranks of active contributors, and often look for open source experience and reputation rather than demanding formal qualifications.

What this means is that even without a particular degree or even paid work experience, involvement in open source can open doorways into an IT career, in a way that is relatively easy to access — just another reason why open source is increasingly important.

Peter Lees is the chief technologist for SUSE in Asia-Pacific.