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Print Edition StoriesFriday, December 19, 2008
How I See It
Collaboration is needed to help close the IT worker gap
MHT Editor Doug Banks on NECN: Decoding the Gen Y workforce
Flash Slideshow: Mass High Tech All-Stars Thought Leadership Roundtable
Too often, there is a significant disconnect between the realms of business and education. Constantly changing business practices put a strain on educators to remain abreast of emerging industry trends. The problem is compounded because it can be costly — in time, energy and money — to stay updated.
Particularly in the information technology industry, knowledge comes and goes so quickly that what IT professionals learned three years ago is already outdated. It is estimated that what students learn in their freshman college year may be irrelevant by the time they graduate as seniors.
Industry is often hesitant to become involved in working with educational institutions to combat this problem, citing a lack of time as one main reason. With ever-increasing cost pressure, who can blame businesses? But this segregation of education and industry, of classroom and real world, is a severe and growing dilemma in our educational and career-path pipeline.
Kathie Shields, director of the Rhode Island-based technology industry association Tech Collective, said that with fewer and fewer students exiting high school and even college systems with adequate business, industry and professional know-how, this segregation is a dilemma that has become quite apparent to educators and employers alike. Tech Collective published its “Report of the Informational Technology Industry Skills Gap” and is in the process of developing a social, online internship and career platform. Shields said that we need to take steps toward change if we are going to overcome the education and skills gap in the United States.
The time for change is now. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the information technology industry is expected to grow 68 percent from 2002 through 2012. The R.I. Economic Development Corp. reports the IT and digital media sectors provide almost 16,000 jobs and more than $1 billion in wages. Yet, despite the fact that IT has some of the fastest growing, highest paying career fields, educators and employers are struggling to fill rosters and hire positions. According to the Tech Collective’s report, IT enrollment has declined nearly 50 percent nationwide. In Rhode Island alone, two leading colleges and universities have reduced their IT programs, and one has eliminated it altogether.
Collaboration among education, industry and government is imperative, said Shields, because there is still much room to grow. There is now an opportunity to teach the students who will fill Rhode Island’s high-wage career openings, Shields said, and in some quarters of the educational world, that opportunity is understood.
According to Frank Tweedie, dean of the School of Technology at Johnson & Wales University, industry drives the university’s curriculum, and that helps it focus on the skill sets that make its students valuable in the marketplace.
With value and innovation in mind, Tweedie and Paul Cronin, senior vice president of Atrion Networking Corp., worked in tandem to develop cooperative learning opportunities at Atrion for JWU students interested in business and technology solutions. Of the more than 60 interns Atrion has hosted, 15 have been from Johnson & Wales, with seven of them were later hired by the company.
Last year discussions led to the creation of a Help Desk lab to be built on campus. Now beyond the blueprint phase, the call center is expected to be fully functional in 2009. Practicing as industry “Level 1” engineers, approximately 16 students a day will provide Atrion clients with live customer support in the fields of computer tech services and network engineering.
Once again, the benefits of industry and educational collaboration will offer a stronger alignment between university learning and business requirements.
Giselle LaFrance is communications specialist for Tech Collective, the industry partner for information technology and biosciences in Rhode Island. She also works for Atrion Networking Corp., a business technology and managed service solutions provider.
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