Developing LaSalle's IT graduate certificate program partnered with industry

Abstract

Many IT-based companies located in the greater Philadelphia area find the need to provide their employees, whose daily activities focus on IT-related responsibilities, with continuing education IT courses. One objective is to keep their employees up to date with the ever changing tools and technologies present and available in the IT workplace. In turn, the company benefits by having a highly trained and competent IT workforce. However, many of these companies find that the traditional forms of college-based continuing education graduate level programs inadequate to fulfill their needs in a timely fashion. Graduate level degrees often take many years to complete and do not provide a quick enough return on investment.To address these needs and concerns, LaSalle University has established and partnered with an external computer science advisory board (CSAB) comprised of top executives within the IT business community. One focus of the CSAB is to help steer the University in the creation of its IT Graduate Certificate Program. To this end, it was determined to implement the program in a phased approach bringing various certificate concentrations on-line as they are established. This paper discusses the ongoing process of working with the board to analyze industry needs and determining what courses and certificates to provide based on University resources.In addition, a questionnaire was distributed to a small number of students to evaluate what students consider to be important factors in both the IT and computer science curriculums. Ultimately, we as educators serve the students and their input is essential to meet their needs. Coupled with information as seen by the student, information as seen by Industry, and information seen by the University, all three perspectives should help to develop a useful and successful IT Graduate Certificate Program.