Tech skills suffer with worker glut

Although unemployment continues to make headlines, the glut in information-technology workers is only temporary, experts say. Once the economy improves, demand for IT skills will rise again.

By Virginia Dudek
Dallas Morning News

But will the work force be ready?

Already, employers are finding a persistent lack of qualified applicants trained in programs such as Oracle and PeopleSoft.

The shortages seem most critical in these high-end areas, but a report recently released by the National Policy Association said that the average worker will not be able to compete in a job market in which industries increasingly require technology-savvy workers at all levels.

"Rather than a worker gap, there is a skills gap," said James Auerbach, senior vice president at the nonprofit research organization. "When the recovery starts, we will have the same shortage we did two to three years ago."

The report, "Building a Digital Workforce: Confronting the Crisis," was released by the Digital Economic Opportunity Committee.

The committee was established by the association last year to address the skills shortage in the Information Age economy.

The committee is working with business, labor, education, government and nonprofits to develop ongoing training programs to help the average worker — not just the most technical.

"We’re trying to establish programs that are not subject to economic vagaries and government funding cuts," Auerbach said.

The report details successful programs that represent partnerships among business, labor and government, but Auerbach said that all sectors need to do more.

"Employees have to go back to school all the time to keep up-to-date and employable," Auerbach said. "Training is not a one-time thing but must be continual."

Jack Scott, vice president and chief information officer at The viaLink Co., an electronic-commerce service firm in Dallas, echoes concerns about the shortage of technical-job candidates at the high end.

"From an academic standpoint, there has been a steady decline over the last decade in the number of undergraduates and advance-degreed graduates in the U.S. with technical proficiency," said Scott, a technical adviser on curriculum for the School of Technology at Claremont Graduate University.

"There are fewer and fewer graduates with computer-science degrees. As we become more technologically entwined, where is the next generation coming from?"

Scott said computer-science training is not as "sexy" to students as it was during the high-tech wave of the 1980s and 1990s.

Companies such as IBM and Microsoft expect workers to pay their dues in "farm" programs designed to give workers the skills the company demands.

Rather than wait, students are choosing general business careers, where they see a chance for more rapid advancement.

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