Home | Education & Distance Learning Articles | Article

Novices Fill Technology Gaps

HR Magazine - November 1, 1999

Employers are joining forces with educators to turn no-tech job-seekers into in formation technology specialists.

Inside a suburban Washington, D.C., office building, 25 college graduates ranging in age from 25 to 55 are going back to school. None of them has a computer technology background but all are sitting at PCs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., five days a week, to learn the basics of computer programming and system networking. Many of them have quit careers to be here. Others are re-entering the workforce. Still others are retirees looking for extra income.

Whatever their backgrounds, they're all counting on the same thing: They expect their newfound knowledge and skills to prepare them to join one of the hottest job markets today--information technology.

This six-month crash course is the Technology Retraining Internship Program, or TRIP. Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) in Annandale, Va., launched TRIP in January 1998 as one solution to the insatiable demand for qualified employees in Northern Virginia's technology industry.

The program targets career changers and displaced workers who have college degrees and professional work experience but no backgrounds in computer-related fields. To move these students quickly into information technology careers, TRIP seeks to leverage their past work experience and present academic training plus something else: hands-on training through paid internships with local IT companies.

The program is getting attention as a model public-private partnership, and its graduates are turning internships into jobs.

"The traditional stuff just is not working anymore, so we've really had to look elsewhere and in other ways to get qualified people," says Cheryl Orr, former director of human resources at Dynamic Technology Systems Inc., a 102-employee IT firm in Alexandria, Va. Students in TRIP "all have degrees and they've sacrificed to do this--quitting their previous jobs to devote full-time to their re-careering. The commitment is there and those are the kind of people we want to employ."

IT Workers Wanted--Now

TRIP is one of several workforce development initiatives sponsored and partially funded by the Northern Virginia Regional Partnership Inc. (NVRP), a two-year-old coalition of educators and local technology executives. With a $2.4 million state grant earmarked for technology education and workforce development, the partnership's aim is to attract and train new workers, particularly those in non-technological fields who want to make career transitions toward information technology jobs.

That mandate is crucial. Virginia needs IT employees. With an estimated 2,055 technology firms in Northern Virginia, the region's technology sector represents 70 percent of all technology earnings in the state.

A 1998 study commissioned by the NVRP estimated that there were 22,987 vacancies among Northern Virginia's information technology firms, largely in the software engineering and programming fields. Companies polled for the study also anticipated that the current need for IT customer service, management and engineering services would double--and in some cases triple--over the next two years, according to the study's authors at George Mason University's Institute for Public Policy in Fairfax, Va.

The region's high-tech labor crunch mirrors that of the nation. The Information Technology Association of America, an 11,000-member business group based in Arlington, Va., conducted a survey earlier this year and found that a lack of skilled workers is the most significant barrier to growth IT companies face. Based on the responses of 57 firms, the research indicated that companies place the worker shortage in front of national economic conditions, profit margins or the lack of capital investment as an obstacle to expansion.

California, Texas and Virginia will have the largest numbers of information technology workers in the country by 2006, predicts a report released in July by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Technology Policy. Following them in the IT employee ranks will be Oregon, Georgia and Colorado.

A Cure for Job-Hopping?

To help meet Virginia's need for IT employees, the regional partnership and NOVA struck a deal. Annual support from NVRP partially offsets the institutional costs of TRIP, while local high-tech companies help sponsor the training by providing paid internships to students, says Pete White, TRIP's program coordinator at the community college.

The program so far seems to be working. As of July, 90 students had graduated from the first four sessions, and 81 of them had landed technology jobs with local companies at annual salaries averaging $35,400, according to White. The program's popularity is growing, he says: "I get two to three phone calls a day from parties interested in TRIP."

Roy Marshall made such a call in 1997, after retiring from a 27-year career in the U.S. Army. While his military work hadn't focused on hands-on technology, Marshall, 52, always had a strong interest in the field.

He entered the TRIP program in May 1998, and took an internship with Walcoff & Associates Inc., an IT company in Fairfax, Va. When he graduated last October, Marshall was offered a full-time position with Walcoff, providing network and user support in the firm's computer center as a local area network analyst.

"You go to a lob fair, and companies will say they have no entry-level positions, that they want folks with experience," Marshall says. "This program takes people who have experience and gives them a foot in the door with enough basic tech skills to give them confidence, plus some real-world time working with a company." Marshall's experience now has come full circle. He accompanied company officials on a recent visit to a TRIP class to help make a presentation to a new set of potential interns.

"I wish we could hire 10 more just like him," says Rosanne Gorkowski, Walcoff's director of human resources.

Local employers say they're drawn to TRIP partly because of the high level of commitment it requires. They're expecting that to translate into better-qualified hiring prospects who don't want to job-hop.

"The level and caliber of people you get from TRIP is what attracted us," says Gorkowski. "These students are really making a commitment-- even though they may be lacking technical skills going in, they've committed time and money to learning, they're more mature and know what they need to do to be successful."

Not Your Usual Interns

TRIP's admissions process is selective. Requirements include a bachelor's degree and a demonstrated aptitude for technical study, which is tested using a GRE-style exam that measures verbal, analytical, mathematical and technical abilities. Only the 25 highest-scoring applicants are chosen for each session. Tuition costs $2,400, and financial assistance is available through a special low-interest loan program with Sallie Mae.

During the six-month course full-time classroom instruction is paired with the practical work experience the internships provide. The curriculum, offered in January, May and September, has three parts, starting with 19 foundation subjects such as PC troubleshooting and an introduction to computer operating systems. The programming track includes instruction in C++, Visual Basic, Oracle and Java. The networking track includes training in Windows NT. The college's staff develops course subjects and instruction in consultation with the corporate sponsors. Students spend three months in classes that lead to specialization in either software programming or network administration. Then they spend another three months in paid, half-time internships, with the rest of their time spent in advanced computer training at the college.

Representatives of sponsoring companies visit TRIP classes to talk about internships and job opportunities. Students can state their preferences for internships and companies and TRIP administrators do the matchmaking.

About 10 employers currently partner with TRIP to offer internships, for which they agree to pay students between $12 and $15 an hour.

Getting companies to participate by providing internships is crucial to the program's success. But NOVA's White says that the No. 1 challenge is attracting employers and encouraging them to offer internships to its students.

While more than 70 percent of companies responding to the GMU survey said they would be interested n partnering with educational institutions to help solve workforce development needs and fill job openings, employers may balk when asked to put real, paid work on the line. Business conditions may change, dictating whether companies can afford to offer paid internships or positions. And many IT firms work under government contracts, which require special security clearances, specific levels of experience or professional certifications that student interns probably lack.

1 2 Next »

If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article with hundreds of other Education & Distance Learning enthusiasts from around the world, please feel free to visit the discussion forums & post a message.

Discuss this article in the discussion forums now.

Popular Education & Distance Learning Discussions From The Past

Afraid -- postbacc choices (1 posts)
by Jon Steiner - Last post on: 07-10-03 20:03
I'm just burning off steam, but I'd love to hear from others. I'm in NYC, and I have just heard from Columbia's Post-bacc program. I got in. The problem: It's $80K. I would be $40K short, and I'd have to borrow. I anticipate that I have another twenty years left of my working life, if I'm l... (Read More)

Re: The Abet Open University (1 posts)
by Sammy - Last post on: 08-29-03 12:25
hmmmm... you make sense! In my country low cost quallity education is really appreciated... if worst comes to worst... one can atleast be satisfied that they have gained/ learned something......the most important thing is the appication of wat u learn!!! --- View this thread: http://www.onli... (Read More)

School of Medical Claims and Billing, Fort Collins (1 posts)
by uplift0 - Last post on: 09-04-03 03:39
Is anyone familiar with the School of Medical Claims and Billing (At-Home Professions) in Fort Collins, CO?A friend of mine is thinking about taking their program in Medical Claims and Billing Specialist but would like to know if they are a reliable operation. Ted ... (Read More)

Re: Credits (1 posts)
by Rich Douglas - Last post on: 07-22-03 15:18
Quite right. But if one is already in an associate's program, it would be advisable to contact the admissions offices at the schools one is interested in and ask about transferring. This will also help guide one in selecting the remaining courses to both complete the associate's degree and meet... (Read More)

You must register before posting in the Education & Distance Learning discussion forums. It's free & only takes a few seconds. Please also remember that no advertising is allowed...
Enter The Forums Here