I had an opportunity to briefly address a group of professionals in business organizations who are part of an Advisory Board for a local high school that I’m involved with. The school has a CS/IT focus. I used Cameron Wilson’s excellent set of slides based mostly on US Dept of Labor/Bureau of Labor Statistics Workforce Projections. They point to the workforce issues that are occurring (his slides focus on the US, but the problem is actually worldwide).
I added a slide showing the use of the resource on NCWIT.org entitled “Computing Education and Future Jobs: National, State & Congressional Data”. I had highlighted the congressional district in which were were meeting and grabbed a screen dump. This graphic clearly showed that the current pipeline of computing students in this Congressional district would only cover 27% of the projected computing jobs in this area.
They were astonished. Many have requested more information on this site. Here is the NCWIT site:< http://www.ncwit.org/edjobsmap>
I think you’ll find that in nearly all congressional districts across the US, there is a shortfall, just as the national stats that Mr. Wilson’s slides depict. By the way, here’s a link to Cameron Wilson’s very informative slide set: http://www.acm.org/public-policy/2012_CS_Slides_Aug.pptx
Enjoy the rest of your summer.
