Eyes and Ears on the IT Marketplace

Here in ACU's School of Information Technology and Computing we are continually striving to keep our eyes and ears on the IT marketplace. This is all in an effort to keep our ideas fresh, our curriculum relevant, and our focus market-driven.

A couple of items were recently posted on the InformationWeek website that are worth noting. The first one, posted on March 3 in the Global CIO series, is titled "Hiring for IT Jobs Holds Up." The article reports on the results of the most recent Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index, a survey of 1,400 CIOs, suggesting that IT hiring will increase in the next few months. The article indicates that individuals with experience in network administration and Windows administration will be in particular demand. Of course, these kinds of indicators don't always translate into jobs for new grads with 4-year degrees; but they do tell us something important about the marketplace as we recruit students to our school.

The second article, which also appeared in the Global CIO series back on February 23, is titled "Microsoft Hopes to Train 2 Million in IT by 2012." This program is part of Microsoft's Elevate America program. The company intends to offer free online training in basic technology and Microsoft certification programs through partnerships with state and local agencies, nonprofits, and community organizations. Clearly Microsoft won't do this just to be altruistic; but it is definitely a sign of the times that the demand for IT skills is certainly far from dead.