A comprehensive curriculum for IT education and workforce development

Abstract

Noting the shortage of IT professionals nationally [1], we propose a comprehensive curriculum that supports a variety of programs geared to all ages from early school years to retirement and beyond. Current IT workforce development efforts are limited to training, and have not as yet focused on education and professional development. Largely, this is due to a lack of a science underpinning for IT related curricula. Without such a unified science component, a structured organization of information related concepts cannot be derived.Our proposal includes the development of a number of programs addressing the needs of a variety of learners ranging from elementary school through college and beyond. Seven programs, each with a specific emphasis for various groups, are being developed. Such essential issues as industrial-academic liaisons, workforce (re)training, promotional and awareness programs, teacher training, and IT professional role redefinition, are integral pieces of this project. All developments will be firmly founded on the scientific framework of information science and engineering [2].This work is supported by NSF grant DUE-9950168.