The information technology sector is suffering from an "image problem" and this could hamper its ability to attract people into the profession, according to a new report by Deloitte Access Economics.

Workplace analysts predict Australia will need an extra 100,000 information and communications technology workers by the end of the decade.

The report, entitled Australia's Digital Pulse, and commissioned by the Australian Computer Society, claims television shows like the British comedy series the IT Crowd are doing nothing to attract young IT whiz kids into the tech profession.

The main characters in the comedy series are socially inept computer technicians working in a dingy basement.

Thomas Shanahan from the Australian Computer Society wants to change that stereotype.

"The idea that you would study ICT and work in a basement on tech support couldn't actually be further from the truth," he said.

"ICT used to be a sector where a lot of the work was highly technical, all the work you did required you to spend long hours sitting in front of a computer.

"That's not the case anymore."

Mr Shanahan said there were plenty of "cool" ICT jobs.

"The example I always use is planes," he said.

"Planes fly because largely of the software in the cockpit. So you get to sit there and develop a way to make a plane fly faster, more efficiently, get more people anywhere around the world by developing something that controls the way the engine runs."

Figures show number of IT graduates declining

Still, the idea of going into the tech sector has lost its appeal for some.

The findings show the number of graduates with IT skills has been declining since the early 2000s.

"What we need to do is increase technology education; get more people enrolled in technology courses at university and tertiary education, and really start teaching technology from a younger age," Mr Shanahan said.

Meanwhile, a separate report released by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) found nearly 40 per cent of Australian jobs are at high risk of being replaced by technology within 15 years.

CEDA chief executive Professor Stephen Martin warns Australia is on the cusp of a major industrial revolution, the likes of which the country has never seen before.

"It's going to be the high-skilled, high-paid people that will be in greatest demand in the future; now, not everybody will have the capability of becoming a computer engineer," he said.

Sydney's University of Technology vice-chancellor or research, Professor Glenn Wightwick, said he understood the IT industry was not for everyone, but there would still be plenty of jobs to go around.

"Sure there will be jobs that will disappear as a consequence of ICT. That's always been the case," he said.

"But there are a whole new set of jobs that existed today that didn't exist 10, 20, 30 years ago that have been enabled by ICT.

"So, I tend to be a little bit more optimistic."

But Mr Shanahan said he was just focused on catching the nation's next tech wizards early on in their education.

"What we need the norm in the next 10 years is to have digitally educated, digitally skilled people coming up through the education system and through the working ranks," he said.

"I've got a niece who plays on the iPad. She can do anything in those games on the iPad.

"The next step is to say to her, 'the way we drive the iPad is computational thinking', because then not only can she use the iPad but she can know how the iPad works, and that's the important thing."