NCWE / NCCET 2011 Joint Summit
Preparing 21st Century IT Students
Courtney DeOreo,
RITE Board Project Administrator, Lorain County Community CollegeDenise Vinton,
Manager, IT Early Talent Programs, Eaton CorporationAnnette McIver,
Director, University System of Ohio Talent Development Network Resource Center, Lorain County Community CollegeDemand Exceeds Supply
•
In NEO alone, between 1,000 and 5,000 jobs
openings sit unfilled
•
Baby boomers are starting to retire
•
The college pipeline is low relative the number
of job openings
•
Businesses need HELP!
Enter the…
RITE Aims:
Foundational Goals:
• Industry/Educator Collaboration
• Talent Development
• Promotion, Awareness and Advocacy
3
Mission: Eliminate the gap between supply and demand for IT workers in Northeast Ohio.
Vision: NEO IT talent pool is a highly skilled, industry-responsive workforce and an economic driver to business growth, retention and
attraction for IT companies, including those that produce, consume, and provide IT products and services.
Who is RITE?
•Sam Babic, Associate VP, Development, Hyland SoftwareBill Blausey, SVP and CIO, Eaton Corporation
•Ralph Cagna, MBA, CPHIMS, Director IT Operations,
Cleveland Clinic
•James Cookinham, Owner, Cookinham Consulting, and Founder, Northeast Ohio Software Association
•Diane Gormley, Resource Manager, American Greetings
•Mary Beth Kush, Senior Director, Technology Center,
Acumen Solutions, Inc.
•Joe LaMantia, CFPIM, CIRM, CPA, Managing Partner,
e-Ventus Corporation
•Thomas J. Lucas, CIO, The Sherwin-William Company
•Denis D. Martini, VP IT, Diebold
•Jim McKinnon, VP & CIO, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
•Brad Nellis, Director, Northeast Ohio Software Association •Dr. Sasi K. Pillay. Chief Technology Officer for IT
John H Glenn NASA Research Center
•Andy Platt, VP, Information Services and CIO, The J.M. Smucker Company
•Jim Sage, CIO, The University of Akron
Plus nearly 90 others including company recruiters and HR personnel and individuals from higher education and talent development including career services, internship
coordinators, faculty from Engineering Technologies, Business and Arts and
Humanities, administrators, workforce development
professionals, institutional research, One-Stop personnel, and state officials.
August 2009 Fall 2009 Spring/Summer 2010 Fall 2010 Winter/Spring 2011 Summer 2011 RITE Board Forms
RITE pilots the Balanced Scorecard
2009-2011
A Snapshot
Job Profiling Student Assessments
Developing a Focused Discussion on
Alignment Needs
The Balanced Scorecard Instrument - Pilot
• Creating direct alignment of outcomes between education and employers • Instrument developed by Eaton Corporation for internal use with target
schools throughout Midwest
• Adapted for RITE Board in April 2010
• Relates degree programs to blended competency model that emphasizes non-technical skills
Business Process Knowledge Solution Design & Development
Project Delivery & Management Service Support
Relational and Leadership Skills
• Review BSC instrument
Skills Framework for the Information Age
• Most widely accepted description of IT and IT-related skills
SFIA was produced by the industry for the industry
• SFIA is open source, free to use and owned and maintained by The SFIA Foundation, a not-for-profit organization
Accessed by over 15,000 organizations from more than 100 countries
• SFIA provides a common language for professional bodies, public sector organizations, employers, educators and recruiters
• Used to describe IT roles and determine the skills and proficiency levels required for each role
The skills are simple to understand, well defined, well scoped and designed for easy application
• A simple and logical two-dimensional framework consisting of areas of work or skills on one axis and levels of responsibility/proficiency on the other
Skills Framework for the Information Age
SIX main categories of work
1. Strategy and architecture 2. Business change
3. Solution development and implementation
4. Service management
5. Procurement and management support
6. Client interface
• Categories are sub-categorized and divided into 86 specific skills
• A skill at a level is called a task • There are 290 tasks
SEVEN levels of responsibility
1. Follow 2. Assist 3. Apply 4. Enable 5. Ensure, advise 6. Initiate, influence
7. Set strategy, inspire, mobilize
• Four key dimensions at each level:
Autonomy
Influence
Complexity
Business skills
Skill Code Level Levels of responsibility 1. Follow 2. Assist 3. Apply 4. Enable Description Levels of responsibility described for each skill expressed in terms of autonomy, influence,
complexity, business skills
Benefits of Adopting
The overall purpose of SFIA is to assist organizations employing
(and educating)
IT professionals to…
Assess skills gaps Provide career development Make recruitment effective
Enhance the professionalism and effectiveness of the IT function
This is accomplished by developing the right skills, by deploying them effectively and by providing appropriate development
and career paths for IT professionals.
What is society’s stereotype of IT
professionals?
What are companies looking for in IT
professionals?
Where are the disconnects?
• Typical IT Stereotype
• Variety of jobs, not just Help Desk, Break and Fix, and Programming • Companies have different job titles for similar jobs
• Lack of solid understanding of job requirements
• Students lack….soft skills, soft skills, soft skills
• Students awareness of the importance of soft skills
• Need to get to competency level of jobs to better connect employer demands with student talents
How did we address the issues?
1. Gathered information from RITE Companies
• Reviewed IT jobs and current job descriptions – Identified IT “job buckets”
Infrastructure, Software Development/Engineering, Internet Services, Software Testing and Consulting
– Identified one critical entry level job from each “bucket”
IT Services, Software Developer, Web Designer/Developer, Quality Assurance Analyst and IT Business Analyst
Conducted job profiles on the 5 jobs using subject matter experts across multiple companies to better understand the job and
requirements
2. Assessed current students against the identified attributes
3. Provided feedback to students and connected them with
Campus Career Services Dept. & IT Academic Dept.
Job Profiling
• Utilized Subject Matter Experts from a variety of RITE companies • At least 5 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) {people who do the job or
supervise the job} participated in a 4 hour focus group session for each job and came to consensus on:
The main purpose of the job & job objectives
Sorting deck of 32 task category cards and choose the top 8-10 that best describe the job
Rating the tasks in terms of how much time is spent on each task and how important those tasks are in accomplishing the job objectives
Ranking the tasks in order of importance
Providing job context (i.e., education, experience, physical requirements, working hours, etc.)
What we discovered
Work Activities
The following work activities were determined essential to all five positions (includes a few examples of each):
• Collecting Information
– Asking questions to establish information required
– Listening to verbal instructions
• Analyzing / Integrating / Interpreting
– Summarizing verbal information
– Breaking down a procedure into logical steps
• Deciding
– Deciding a course of action in conjunction with others
– Making quick decisions under time pressure
• Relationships / Representing / Inquiries
– Working closely with a group or team
– Establishing a network of contacts
What we discovered
What we discovered
Numerous attributes were common across all 5 jobs at a variety of importance levels
Persuasive (high) Adaptable (high)
Independent Minded (mid and high) Detail Conscious (high) Affiliative (high) Relaxed (mid and high) Socially Confident (high) Worrying (low)
Democratic (high) Tough Minded (high) Data Rational (high) Optimistic (high)
Evaluative (high) Trusting (high)
What we discovered
Key Competencies
• Competencies are rated as essential, desirable, less relevant and not relevant
• Each job had some essential competencies but there were no commonalties across all 5 jobs. • However, several competencies were common
as either essential or desirable across all 5 jobs: Relating and Networking
Presenting and Communicating Information
Writing and Reporting
What we learned from job profiling
•
Subject matter experts were very willing to share
information even though they were from different
companies
•
Consensus took longer for some sessions than others
•
Infrastructure – IT Services was the most difficult
–
SMEs were from diverse jobs
Connecting with students
Connecting with students
Student Assessment
• Each college recruited students differently to complete an online behavioral assessment that measured three domains: thinking style, relationships with people & feelings/emotions to identify gaps
• Students were able to choose up to 3 jobs for their assessment results to be compared to
• Student Demographics
– 61 total students from across the 5 colleges – 26% female & 73% male
– 49% completed < 2 years IT coursework; 51% completed >=2 years IT coursework
• Created a development plan for students and/or assisted with career exploration via feedback sessions
• Utilizing aggregate data to guide student learning in the classroom and beyond (need more data)
Student Assessment
How to use the MAXXattain Report
• Person /Job Match Report
–Overall Match Score
Essential Match Score
Important Score
Other Relevant Score
It is a tool to help students, Career Services staff, and employers.
It identifies development gaps and assists in creating a “road
map” to close those gaps.
It should NEVER be used as the only tool for career decision
making, internship placement or job placement.
What we discovered
• 44% satisfactorily or very strongly matched to their first job choice
• 56% have some significant gaps when compared to first job choice
• 46% matched more closely to the second choice than their first
What we discovered
• Student assessment results reveal the following attributes were identified as needing the most development
Persuasive (high) Data Rational (high)
Independent Minded (mid and high) Adaptable (high)
Affiliative (high) Trusting (high)
