Industry and education trends
Last week, there was a debate about the education on public TV channel and the Information Technology (IT) industry produced a powerful argument regarding the state education systems. Representatives of several IT and computer companies complained about the significant shortage of skilled IT workers, programmers, engineers, analysts, and other information-system specialists due to fewer IT graduates and the obsolete training programs at several state universities.
According to the IT industry group, at least 80000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million IT jobs are currently unfilled in the U.S. The state universities cannot even begin to meet the demand as they only graduate approximately 25000 IT graduates every year and many do not even have the skills that the industry needs. That is why these IT companies are angry because they have to search all over the world, often as far away as Asia and Europe for skilled workers. And they still do not have enough. This means that if IT companies do not have workers, many IT products will not get built, business opportunities will be lost. A representative said: “With 18 million students in college, why only few are studying science and technology? Why state universities are not doing anything about it? Why state universities are not responsive to the demand from the industry?”
An education official explained that state universities do not have enough classrooms for more students or more money to hire additional professors. Selecting what field to study is students' choice, not the school and the current choices among students are business and arts, not science or technology. Regarding the accusation of having obsolete training, a state university professor testified: “It would take at least two years to develop courses that meet the industry needs but by that time, the technology is already changed. We cannot chase after a moving target. State university should not be a training place for the industry.”
The reason of this dilemma is the demand for IT skilled workers has exploded beyond all expectations in recent years. It would have been difficult for any university to catch up with the high demand. Many in fact are scrambling to survive because many of their professors are also leaving for better jobs in industry. A school official explained: “Today a graduate in computer science or software engineer could make over $100,000 a year, about the same salary of a college professor. For a professor with ten years of experience, it is easily to get jobs that pay $250,000 to $300,000. There is no reason for them to stay in education and make less. The shortage of skilled IT workers is hurting university too.”
But the problem goes beyond the exchange of words between the industry and university. It reflects the lack of strategic planning and understanding of top educators in government to fund education programs that can help improve the economy. For many years, education officials always came up with plans, initiatives and improvement programs but most have not bring any positive results. Few years ago, they sponsored plans to fund more business and financial education because these areas attracted a lot of students and have high enrollment. After the financial crisis, when hundred thousands of business students could not find jobs, many programs were halted. With current budget cut, no one would dare to propose anything new.
The industry representative complained: “The education department puts money into jobs that no longer exist. They reduce funding to university programs that lead to highly paid positions such as research, engineering, information systems that could improve our international trade and help reduce unemployment. As a result, we are forced to outsource more works to India and China instead of hiring our own people and they blame us for export American jobs. Today the average wage for a computer worker exceeds $100,000 a year and many IT positions are going unfilled, we do not have any choice but to hire more foreign workers. Our current problem is we cannot find enough of them.”
According to a current government study, each year approximately 3 million students are starting their college educations but a majority does not know what to study and they need advices. The study came up with a long list of potential fields to avoid, including law, sales, marketing, advertising, and financial trading. It encourages students to consider computer science and information technologies as best fields with the best future. According to the study, technology is the top career category, with engineering close behind, then medicine and health care came in third. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics puts computer and information science on a growth trajectory of 22% from 2008 to 2018, with network systems and telecommunications expected to grow by 53% for the same period. The health care industry is expected to add another 3 million more jobs in the next five years. Engineering will grow at a rate of 11% but some will double that rate, including biotechnology, industry engineering and environmental engineering, all of which will exceed 20% growth through 2018.
A government official said: "We are already seeing fast growth in these areas. The trend is not just in the U.S but in many countries as technologies are creating more jobs in engineering and computer science. Certain areas in the health care sector are also growing stronger than expected as more people are growing old and they need more medical help. There are new opportunities in biotechnology, robotics, and big data that we cannot possibly predict. It is impossible to predict what will be hot in the next few years because with globalization, so many things change fast. Young people entering college this year could graduate into a completely new job market that we do not even know. With so much uncertainty, there is only one sure thing which is study technology. It is important to keep your mind open so that you can be flexible and ready to adjust to changes.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
