Purpose

Research Question:
How can the College's Graduate/Professional Studies programs be enhanced or reconfigured in order to meet the changing needs in Northeast Ohio?

This is an attempt to capture my research process and to share my research findings with as many people as possible. My project goal is to research workforce needs and economic development projections in Northeast Ohio in order to provide recommendations for program enhancement, particularly in Graduate and Professional Studies.

I chose to conduct my project in this public manner in order to explore one aspect of the type of technologically integrated learning for which I am advocating. I have not blogged before, so bear with me.

Early posts merely reflect information gathered. As I progress, my later posts will be more analytical and synthetic. I invite any and all comments, thoughts, musings, questions, and connections. The more personal input I receive, the more meaningful my recommendations will become.

If I have learned anything in the past few weeks, it is certainly that there are many important things that I just don't know, so help me out if you see the need.

Please click on the links that are in (almost) every post to get detailed information from the source itself.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

From the Northeast Ohio Information Technology Workforce Report, 2007, commissioned by Nortech
  • The Information Technology (IT) Workforce is Sizable
    There are an estimated 96,000 IT professionals employed in Northeast Ohio.

  • Most IT departments are small. Only 21% of companies had IT departments with 10 or more employees.

  • The most common IT professionals are: Business Application Specialists (31% of IT
    workforce), Programmers (13% of IT workforce), Network Specialists (7% of workforce), and Information Systems Analysts (5% of workforce).

  • The system of higher education is not producing enough graduates to keep pace with
    employer demand for professional workers.

  • Overall investment in training and development of IT workers is low in Northeast Ohio. One-third of all companies dedicate no portion of their IT budget for worker training while one-half allocate anywhere from 1-2% for staff training. World class levels of investment are assumed at 3% or more.

  • About one in four employers are interested in joining forces with other employers to provide feedback to area colleges on important skill sets for IT graduates.

  • Enrollment is lower than it was 5-6 years ago (i.e., 674 students enrolled in 2000/01 compared to only 230 students in 2006/
    07) but production of graduates is similar to what it was in 2000/01 (i.e., 46 graduates in 2000/01, 46 in 2005/06, and 44 in 2006/07). Fewer students are enrolling in technical support programs but community colleges are doing a better job of graduating those who are enrolled.

  • Employer demand for technical support professionals is far greater than what Northeast Ohio’s system of higher education is producing. At the time the employer survey was conducted there were 74 job openings for technical support representatives (outside) and 668 openings for help desk personnel.
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