What information technology asks of business higher education institutions: The case of Rhode Island

Journal of Information Systems Education, Jul 2003 by Desplaces, David E, Beauvais, Laura L, Peckham, Joan M

ABSTRACT

Using data from Rhode Island, this research examines the relationships among certifications, skills, educational levels and the level of compensation across the IT field and attempts to discriminate between ten major job functions. It assesses the significance of skills and certifications to specific IT worker categories. The level of education was found to predict success. Certification and skills vary across job functions, and did not necessarily differentiate across IT job functions. Suggestions on the development of curricula are proposed.

Keywords: IT Professional, Curricula Development, Business Education

1. INTRODUCTION

College enrollment in the United States alone is projected to rise to 17.7 million by 2011, or increase by 20 percent from 1999 levels (Gerald & Hussar, 2001). Coupled with changes in the composition of the US economy, college and universities are attempting to meet the future needs of the digital sector, which in the years to come will demand an increasingly larger proportion of skilled information technology (IT) professionals (Buckley et al., 2000). IT professionals are projected to be in high demand until at least 2010, with over 1.8 million new jobs added in computer and data processing services (an 86 percent increase from 2000) (Berman, 2001). However, the existing supply of qualified professionals does not meet demand. Therefore, the focus of research should be on determining the appropriate educational level, skill sets, and certifications that professionals need for IT jobs.

IT professionals have diverse educational backgrounds, ranging from mechanical engineering (historically the original career route for IT professionals) to music degrees. Even though history tells us that different kinds of education are needed for different kinds of IT jobs, the general goals of higher education is in part to provide systems thinking, the ability to generalize, and abstract reasoning ("Understanding the IT workforce," 2001). On the other hand, technical work calls for some form of specialization. However, traditional IT educational purveyors' (i.e., mechanical engineering) inability to meet the demand for workers, coupled with the fast pace at which technology changes, has forced a hybrid career on IT professionals that includes a combination of managerial, technical, project and technology specific assignments (Bailyn, 1991; Burn & Ma, 1997).

In order to provide the skills needed for the profession, deans and educators at business schools across the country are taking a closer look at their curricula in an effort to capture a share of the competitive market of educating IT workers. Business schools are significant providers of both core business and management information system candidates, at both the undergraduate and master's level. Curriculum changes are being considered to address the changing needs of students attending higher educational institutions as a reflection of the market demand. Consequently, research has been conducted in the areas of core information technology curricula (Burn & Ma, 1997; Gil & Hu, 1999; Stephens & O'Hara, 2001; Watson, Soousa, & Junglas, 2000), IT skills (Arnett & Litecky, 1994; Badawy, 1998; Lee, Koh, Yen, & Tang, 2001; Rada, 1999), and IT career paths (Arnett & Litecky, 1994; Bailyn, 1991; Igbaria, Greenhaus, & Parasuraman, 1991) in an effort to determine the critical educational success factors and required skills of IT professionals. Findings are mixed. Some research advocates the need for specialization and certification (Arnett & Litecky, 1994), while others put forth that "the standards for the skill or knowledge of an individual [should] be oriented to slower changing principles so that the standards retain value over time" (Rada, 1999, p. 25). Some suggest that work experience might have a greater impact on IT workers' long-term performance than formal education (Hilton, 2001). CEO's still find individuals ill prepared for technology jobs (Hahs, 1999), and call for curriculum reforms that meet their needs.

Unprepared workers could arise from inconsistency in the teaching of elements considered core to the industry. Current research has made few attempts to measure the significance of particular skills and certifications for the IT professional, and their relationships to educational principles. The present study intends to offer further direction to this developing line of inquiry and to identify curriculum areas that business schools could help shape in pursuit of training the next generation of IT professionals. The purpose of this paper is two fold. First, it attempts to measure the importance of the number and kinds of skills, certifications, education levels, and other demographic variables to individual career success using compensation level as one outcome measure. Second, it attempts to show if the presence of specific skills and certifications are predominant within and vary across job functions.

2. METHOD

Data collected via a web-based instrument by the Rhode Island Technology Council (RITEC) in the fall of 2001 were used for this research. This entire database included demographic variables, compensation, educational level, job title, place of residence and place of work, list of benefits provided by their employers, preferred methods of recruitment, acquired skills and certifications of IT professionals, and work related questions. For the purposes of the present study, this data set included demographic information, compensation levels, job descriptions [as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA)], as well as the levels of education that they had attained, the types and number of certifications, and the skills that they currently possess. The list of certification and skills was developed using various sources, including the ITAA industry standard and major software providers.