It's official. Jobs are coming back. In a speech given last Friday in Charlotte
North Carolina, President Obama made a statement about jobs that "We are
beginning to turn the corner!” He cited the latest data from the Labor
Department adding that the economy added 162,000 jobs in March, the biggest
increase in three years. A quick couple of Goggles’ (or a “Topeka” if you
caught the April Fool’s joke Google played) looking for local proof actually supported
this claim and among the largest gainers…IT workers. In fact, companies
are hiring IT workers
at the highest level in quite some time. No surprise as those unemployed have
taken advantage of retraining opportunities and IT leads the way there too.
What’s hot?
Systems
engineering/support, Software development, IT architects/consultants, IT
management, Systems administration, Hardware engineering and…Training/tech writing!
What sector?
From what I
was able to summarize, of course traditional High Tech companies but also financial
services and IT services firms.
What skills are REALLY in demand?
Java,
Windows (XP and Windows 7), Oracle, SQL and in general any database…after all,
who is going to keep track of all the Health Care data! Other areas include
Linux (have you seen Red Hat’s stock price for the past 12 months), C++/V++,
XML and related web technologies.
What the experts are saying about retraining
There is new evidence that retraining for IT skills is on
the rise. Retraining or returning to education to learn new skills is always a
positive but returning to be trained in an IT field will get you closer to a
job. The idea of retraining is not just for those that have lost their job, made
redundant, laid off and/or fired. Retraining should be on the top of everyone’s
to do list along with losing weight and eating better and it looks equally well
on both the currently employed as well as the currently unemployed.
In an editorial titled Retraining IT Staff slows business change, Don Tennant concludes that the shortage is not one of IT labor, but of qualified
IT labor with the particular skills that companies need. Also, by Tennant were
quotes from company leaders that companies do retrain their employees, but just
“the ones that we felt had the right aptitude and the right capabilities,".
In short, the brutal truth is that a lot of the retraining will have to be on
your personal time and most likely with your personal dollars too.
How can the IT Learning Leaders
help
Novell’s
leader Ron Hovsepian's went on record stating that IT training should come
under the purview of an IT industry organization and he would be happy to
contribute to such an effort simply because most companies don't have the time
or the money to effectively address training themselves. Is this the
opportunity that IT learner leaders like ourselves have been waiting for? Who
is going to call Ron?
We
are in the business of making IT better. All of us should be on the lookout to
help both the unemployed workers quest become the IT pros they need to regain
employment, but also those among us to stay employed. And yes, if we make a
profit doing it, that’s o.k.
Now, more than ever,
we need more of us. More people like us are needed in our organizations looking
after content, delivery and overall looking after the needs of the IT learner. As always, I look forward to your continued
feedback and feel free to contact me anytime at bob.austin@itlearnblog.com
