The number of young Australians involved in the tech industry has dramatically fallen and is "an absolute crisis", according to a leading technology entrepreneur.

Key points: Entrepreneur says number of students studying technology has dropped by up to 60 per cent

Entrepreneur says number of students studying technology has dropped by up to 60 per cent He says the solution to the decline should begin in schools

He says the solution to the decline should begin in schools CSIRO chairman says Australia needs a culture of "loving learning"

"If there's one thing we need to do to fix this industry, it's to get more people into it," chief executive of the online services company Freelancer Matt Barrie told the Knowledge Nation summit in Sydney.

He said the number of students studying IT had fallen by somewhere between 40 per cent and 60 per cent in the last decade, with the number of women enrolling in technology degrees also dropping dramatically.

"This is all in the middle of this historic boom in technology," he said.

He believes the solution centres on the kindergarten to year 12 system.

"Instead of lumping a couple of horrendous subjects around technology in with woodwork and home economics — yes there's a bit of change coming — but I think it's mostly lip service," Mr Barrie told the summit.

The benchmark according to him is the Estonian education system.

"In Estonia, 100 per cent of publicly educated students will learn how to code starting at the age of seven or eight, first grade and continue all to the age of 16 in high school," Mr Barrie said.

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Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham highlighted the challenge of addressing school curriculum issues — given that it is up to states to bring in such changes.

"You become incredibly reliant on others for implementation of policies and states and territories … of course deliver all of the school-based education in Australia," Mr Birmingham said.

"We can provide policy leadership in terms of digital technologies.

"It is clear that STEM (science, technology engineering and mathematics) needs to be front and centre of our plans for our education system at all levels from the high chair … through to higher education.

"The innovation agenda has already set aside $64 million of funding for STEM and digital literacy education."

'Nanny state' perception scaring off young people

Central to Mr Barrie's concern for the tech sector is that Australia — and particularly New South Wales — is not attractive enough to make people move from places like San Francisco.

"It's so absurd that in NSW that a kid riding without a helmet gets fined more than the speeding driver that ran over him," he said.

"Why is this important? Well if you're trying to attract young smart people to come back to Australia, it's a bit hard when #nannystate is trending on Twitter."

Mr Barrie recounted a conversation he had with a recruiter about trying to fill a senior technology role in Australia.

"[The recruiter told me] 'we used to think that maybe someone would move for a lifestyle thing, but they don't even want to do that anymore'," he said.

"[The recruiter went on to say] 'it's not just about being paid well, it's that it's a backwater — they have to move once to get over there but … more importantly when they finish they have to move back and it's just too hard for them to get back into the action'.

"This is what it's like trying to attract [and] incentivise technology in Australia."

Australia needs a culture of 'loving learning': CSIRO chairman

CSIRO chairman David Thodey called on Australians to "keep learning", amid his fear that the nation's culture does not involve enough continuous learning.

David Thodey wants to shift an attitude change in Australia's approach to learning. ( ABC News: Jake Sturmer )

"I'm not sure we have a culture in Australia where we love to learn and we encourage people to always learn," Mr Thodey said.

"Doesn't matter who from, but that attitude where 'hey, I want to find out about this'.

"When I was in Israel last year I could sense it there … it's everywhere you go there's a sense of 'I want to improve, I want to do something, I want to change something' and it's just palpable."

Mr Thodey said that it did not necessarily have to be coding — as it was in his case — just "whatever gets you going".

"I think for all of us — you've got to keep learning and that's what a learning culture's all about and that's what we've got to create in this country," he said.