IBM Initiative

IBM has recognized the need to reverse the decline in enrollment in technical programs and has created an initiative to this end.

Here is a Q&A with Gina Poole, IBM Vice President of Innovation and University Relations.

Ms. Poole explains the declining enrollment as follows:

There are a couple of reasons: one is a myth, believed by parents, students, and high school guidance counselors, that computer science and engineering jobs are all being outsourced to China and India. This is not true. The percentage of the total number of jobs in this space is quite small -- less than 5%. According to a government study, the voluntary attrition in the U.S. has outpaced the number of outsourced jobs to emerging nations. Further, for every job outsourced from the U.S., nine new jobs are actually created in the U.S.

She discusses the job outlook:

The growth is everywhere. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has identified computer-based jobs as one of the hottest areas, and those involving specific skill sets -- systems analysts, database administrators, computer scientists -- as some of the fastest-growing occupations through 2012, with growth rates anywhere from 40 to 70% in the U.S. alone. Further, at least 1.5 million additional IT field professionals will be needed by the end of this year.

Another factor: approximately 70 million baby-boomers will leave the workforce over the next 15 years, with only 40 million new workers coming in, and that will make the shortage of computer-skilled folks even more dramatic. Canada and EMEA foresee similar retirement rates. And even looking at India or China or Russia, where there are explosions of activity, they are trying to move as quickly as possible from agricultural to manufacturing to services economies. In developed nations in Europe and North America, about 70% of the economy is based on services and knowledge workers, and this is where India, China, and Russia would like to be.

Over 50% of students entering university in India and China select degree programs in science, technology, math, and computer science, but they still don't have enough skilled workers to meet the demand.

She also answers the question, "Some estimates place the percentage of IT jobs eligible for outsourcing at 20%. With that in mind, can you still predict significant IT job growth here at home?":

Absolutely. To say, "20% of IT jobs are being outsourced" is alarming, but there are whole new fields opening up, new disciplines that will be in huge demand. Some of the more traditional IT positions -- application maintenance, transcription services, base application development -- may be outsourced for a number of reasons, principally cost and availability of workers.

But if you think of the exciting jobs marrying technology and business and really making an impact -- data mining, business intelligence, network architecture, Internet and Web architecture, Web services -- these will be the hot jobs as technology becomes more pervasive, less costly, and as more uses are found for it. There's even a view that outsourcing actually will help grow jobs.

Read the full interview.

The IBM Academic Initiative Newsletter is avaialble online.