Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions
November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.
Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group
The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.
Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award
Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »May 01, 2001 — CIO —
Chief Information Officers are finding it easier to retain and recruit IT professionals, according to a recent poll by CIO and Deutsche Banc Alex.Brown. Some point to the thousands of tech workers pink-slipped by technology companies. Others look to failed dotcoms.
For whatever reason, the main point is this: The influx of available workers is temporary, and the quality of the available talent pool is not exactly desirable.
Last year, the Information Technology Association of America (www.itaa.org) estimated that the U.S. economy created 900,000 new jobs needing tech skills. Of those, 425,000 jobs went vacant, and no amount of fired technology workers, dotcom workers or H1-B visa carriers is going to fill that vacuum--even if the economy continues to languish in its economic fog.
What really worries me is a report from the Computing Research Association. The CRA stated that colleges and universities face a shortage of applicants for faculty positions in computer science and IT because too few students are graduating with doctoral degrees in those fields.
According to the report, 880 IT and computer science doctoral degrees were awarded by colleges and universities in the United States in 2000, the lowest number since 1990. The culprit? Undergrad and master’s degree candidates in those programs realize that they do not need to complete a PhD to get a good-paying, nonacademic job.
All the while, America’s community colleges, four-year colleges and universities face soaring undergraduate enrollments in computer science and IT. Moreover, according to a review I chaired for the Board of Higher Education in Massachusetts, these undergraduates are often walking into classrooms with teachers not schooled in the new technologies. "We will get to XML in May, maybe," encapsulates sentiments we heard among tenured computer department faculty during the review.
Not having enough technology workers in the workforce is not the most serious threat facing the long-term continued prosperity of American businesses around the world. Not having enough qualified computer science and IT in higher education classrooms is.
Our country must fix this systemic problem with systemic solutions. Business leaders, CIOs and government can no longer sit on the sidelines of this critical academic playing field. What can you do to help solve this problem? Willing to lend your brightest tech workers to academia in an "adjunct professor, Peace Corps" effort? Got an idea? Send it along. We are all in this boat together.