Used to be that if you worked in information technology or provided training for the IT field you; 1) listed Star Wars, Star Trek and any Monty Python movie as the best movies ever!; 2) Thought that calculus was somewhat easier then talking with the opposite sex; and 3) communicated only in cryptic Unix shell commands to friends and family. For most of us, it’s good that things are different now.
For us in the IT training field we see ourselves having grown it to an industry onto itself. We are more likely to hear IT training referred to as the “IT Training Industry” - or at least IT Training being referred to as a hugely important subset of the entire overall training industry.
IT training is no longer just about the field in which we teach about computers, how they work, how fast they work or how to fix them when they crash. The IT training industry’s mission has matured and hence the goals of the industry need to mature with it.
On the surface, and the response you are most likely to get from others, is that the IT training industry should train those “math and science people” to write software that runs our computers. While that is a role, and no doubt an important one, it is a role played better by universities. Our role as post-university educators is something more. IT training should be focused on insuring that workers have a firm understanding of computers but also have solid skills and experience that goes beyond computer programming and computer technology. We need to insure our courses and curriculums develop the employees to address the critical IT needs of today.
If we are to grow as IT educators we must grow our industry. We have to adapt to the needs of the industries we provide workers for. Overall, our IT training industry needs programs that advance individuals in business analysis, project management, system architecture and more. Don’t get me wrong, there still is and will be a need to continue to train the IT employees in programming, operating systems and vendor certifications, but the need for skilled IT professionals has gone beyond that traditional IT training curriculum. We need programs that can excite not just the IT newbie but the 20+ year veteran as well.
Our IT training industry has been built on providing to just about every other industry, employees which are not just IT “trained”. We are expected now to deliver to a diverse set of other industries: Healthcare, Transportation, Finance, etc., employees who are well versed in technology, understand how, when and where to apply those technology skills and how to use those skills to solve business problems. They need employees who can speak Unix but more importantly be able to communicate effectively how that can help solve today’s business challenges.
As always, I would love to hear from you and look forward to your continued feedback. Feel free to contact me anytime at aust1648@gmail.com.
