My Christmas Wish for Jobseekers
A big thank you to Teresa Varela-Lauper, another one of my valued colleagues at CompTIA for being my guest blogger this week.
John McGlinchey
My 19 year old son Nicholas dropped out of college last year.
He tried it, didn’t like it and didn’t know what to do next. I know many people who have succeeded in life without college…. however, for the most part the odds are stacked against him.
Unemployment rates triple for high school graduates compared to those with a 4 year college degree. Couple this with an income disparity when you think of the pool of jobs available without a college degree and it’s not a pretty picture. (Bureau of Labor Statistics and Pew Research)
What are we doing to encourage our young people to get into IT?
And, how do we show our kids there are solid careers out there without requiring a 4 year degree?
How do we encourage change among businesses to hire and invest in these kids?
A career in technology will be a lifesaver for many….there is low unemployment, high demand for skilled workers and a mass of free training to encourage folks to start their careers here.
It’s my Christmas wish that our new U.S. administration will look at apprenticeship programs to help at risk employees learn new skills.
The UK has done an amazing job with this. Instead of talking about saving coal jobs, the better question is how can we re-skill these workers? How can we encourage businesses to take on that challenge and pay employees as they learn? Let’s look over the pond at a model that is working.
As for Nicholas, I’m happy to share he recently started an IT helpdesk program at Hunter Business School here on Long Island. This is a 15 month computer technician program where he will learn PC repair/installation, planning and maintenance and also earn his CompTIA A+ certification.
Let’s change the narrative for our future workers and ring in 2017 with technology apprenticeships.
Teresa Varela-Lauper is Director of Business Development. She works with SMB and Fortune 1000 clients in the US who are looking to attract and retain good IT talent as well as promote a culture of innovation and productivity. She lives in the Greater New York City Area.
Why IT needs more WOMEN!
On a recent trip to Johannesburg, I presented at the facilities of one of our CompTIA training partners. Afterwards, I had the opportunity to field questions from over 100 college students. They asked a lot of interesting questions, mainly around getting a job and how CompTIA’s certifications could help them get that job and start on a great career path.
With an incredible excess of four million open IT jobs globally and the workforce expected to shrink by over 30% in the next ten to fifteen years due to retirees, these sharp students all agreed they made the right career choice in choosing to study IT.
Interestingly, almost half the audience was female. – a very similar ratio to the group of students I spoke with in Kuala Lumpur earlier this summer. This gives me confidence that we were making great strides in getting more women into the world of IT.
That was, until I read an article in Inc.com which suggests the gap between young men and women considering a career in the field of cybersecurity is widening. (The results stem from a survey of almost 4,000 people ages 18-26 from 12 countries.)
Attracting young talent, particularly women, represents a huge challenge for the tech industry. If the trend continues, the already dire shortage of qualified tech workers will grow worse. Last summer, Google, Facebook, Apple and other big tech companies released figures showing that men out number women 4:1 or more in their technical sectors.
Based on recent research, women make up half our population and yet, just 10-15% of tech jobs in the U.S. were held by women (down from 35% in 1990). During the same period, the number of women earning computing degrees also declined.
This is alarming considering we all recognize the threat to our livelihoods from cyber criminals and that this issue is one of the key talking points in boardrooms across the world.
Innovative ideas are critical to addressing this challenge. I was thrilled to hear about a New York school that teaches amateur coders the skills to land high-paying professional jobs. Fullstack Academy won't charge tuition fees for its brand new all-women school until after its students land a job.
It is straightforward common sense: If a business only gets to pick staff from half of the working population, then it is recruiting from a pretty reduced talent pool. More women need to be encouraged into IT careers so the industry can pick from the best of both genders and a broader mix of skills and personalities.
Copyright 2015 John McGlinchey. All Rights Reserved.