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In a survey of the high school class of 1998 by the American College Testing service, fewer than 1 percent indicated aspirations to be computer engineers. One wonders if these students realize that there are hundreds of thousands of openings for programmers, engineers and systems analysts – many of them high-paying.

Earlier this year at a Potomac KnowledgeWay forum on work force issues, several local human-resources representatives suggested that the root of the local shortage of tech workers was the education system. It simply hasn't churned out enough tech graduates with the necessary skills, they argued.

WashTech asked F. William Stephenson, dean of the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, and Robert Parilla, president of Maryland's Montgomery College, to explain the challenges educational institutions face in educating the next generation of techies.

Q: How severe is the job shortage in the information technology industry, in your view?

William Stephenson: Demand far outstrips supply but that is not unique to information technology – it almost always occurs in periods of rapid change. The supply side will adjust through a combination of new training and re-training of existing employees, as well as by hiring new employees.

But the important point is that we need to look beyond the current narrow definition of information technology to meet the demand for jobs in the field.

Stephenson: The definition of information technology should encompass not just computer science, computer engineering and information science, but also electrical engineering to include the fields of wireless communications and fiber optics. And it even goes beyond that.

It seems to me that many IT positions require individuals who are bright and able to manipulate existing software packages. There is also a need – although not as great in terms of numbers – for workers able to design those packages.

So we ask ourselves the question, are we really looking for designers or for sophisticated, educated computer users? I believe we have a much broader range of graduates who are able to work in this field.

Stephenson: Here's an example. As one of the largest engineering colleges in the nation, Virginia Tech graduates about 300 electrical engineering and computer engineering majors each year. That represents about 60 percent of the total of such grads in the state of Virginia, but it is still short of demand.

I contend that the major demand for graduates can be satisfied by other engineers. All our graduates are computer literate. A mechanical engineer or an aerospace engineer is just as capable of working in IT as an electrical engineer or computer engineer.

What's more, by creating a software engineering minor, or something similar, which we are considering at Virginia Tech, we could triple the numbers of available engineers for the IT industry.

Stephenson: Bright graduates in humanities and social sciences are probably already using computers for word processing, library searches and Internet access. At Virginia Tech, all entering freshmen are required to own a computer. They study in a highly interactive community. Thus, the computer is an everyday tool for them.

There is no reason why they cannot be productive employees in the IT industry. But the corporate sector must also be willing to do some retraining. Universities are best at educating, not training for the narrow skill set to fit every need.

Stephenson: One consequence is that professors often find themselves earning less than recent graduates, which makes it difficult to retain the best students for graduate work. Someone with a bachelor's degree doesn't see the benefit of pursuing a graduate degree or Ph.D. if it's not attractive enough for them in terms of salary.

In fields like wireless telecommunications, for example, students are often snapped up while pursuing a master's degree and given such attractive offers that it's difficult to for them to justify going for a Ph.D.

Robert Parilla: Local community colleges monitor the business and employment needs in their communities and attempt to respond in a number of ways. Many develop two-year degree programs to prepare individuals for specific career areas – including systems analysts, programmers, application specialists, and bio-lab technicians. Some community colleges also develop shorter, more intense programs to prepare individuals for entry-level positions.

In addition many community colleges work with specific businesses to train, retrain or upgrade their current employees. Community colleges also develop partnerships with businesses such as Microsoft, Oracle, Novell, Sun and other companies to train individuals in those companies' proprietary systems.

Parilla: Community colleges offer degrees that are designed to prepare people for direct entry to a specific area such as Associate of Science or Associate of Applied Science in Biotechnology, Information Technology, Allied Health, and Telecommunications.

They also offer transfer degrees (Associate of Arts or Associate of Science) in engineering and computer science, for example, which are designed to prepare people for more advanced work in these areas.

Parilla: Community colleges have an interest in developing customized courses and programs in partnership with local businesses to respond to defined needs. Community colleges also have an ability to offer courses for credit or non-credit depending on employee or employer interest, and community colleges can partner with other community colleges or four-year colleges to improve their capacity to respond to local needs. Community colleges tend to be convenient, affordable institutions.

Parilla: There are many challenges facing community colleges. One challenge is that technology is changing so fast that as one training area is developed, it may be superseded by more advanced technology.

Another challenge is trying to attract people to study and prepare themselves for a career in high technology. There is a growth in employment opportunity but not a comparable growth in numbers of students wanting to prepare in these areas.

It is also a challenge for faculty to keep up-to-date while continuing to teach a full load, and there is a significant cost problem for up-to-date equipment and up-to-date software and systems.

Parilla: I think there are at least a couple of reasons. High-tech fields such as biotech and IT are fairly new and/or have new names and the public is often not familiar with them. In other words, high school grads aren't sure what a biotechnician does.

If a person is asked what is a teacher or a lawyer, most people know or think they know and they make career decisions based on their perception of the field. To remedy this misunderstanding in the high-tech field, businesses and perhaps news sources could help highlight these new career areas to help educate the public and especially high school students and their parents.

Another reason: I have heard from students who think that studying high-tech or science fields is too hard and therefore something to be avoided. In many instances this is a universal problem in that students must realize that learning IS WORK. Students must apply themselves to learning and be willing to spend time in reasonably rigorous study; in this respect, high-tech fields are not more difficult than any other field of learning.

Parilla: Solutions are difficult, but I think that stronger partnerships between community colleges, businesses and government are critical. With strong partnerships, students could work while they learn. By inviting colleges to offer courses on-site in businesses – using their equipment and facilities – faculty could stay in better touch with the changes in their field. Government could help by providing funding for equipment and training and tax incentives to encourage businesses to enter these partnerships.