Graduate education and E-business

摘要

A recent study showed that there were over 400,000 unfilled vacancies in the IT profession in the USA in large to mid-size companies alone, and that, that figure was expected to rise to over a million by the year 2000. While there is certainly no lack of persons who desire employment in the IT or other E-professions, there is a critical shortage of qualified professionals. The problem is exacerbated by mergers and closures in many of the traditional technical employment fields. Many colleges and universities, while being aware of this situation, are still turning out highly intelligent graduates, who have been formally instructed in these moribund disciplines, which are relevant only to an aging and sometimes sentimental professorate, at the expense of the basic skill sets that all employers require in today's marketplace. This paper examines an innovative approach to graduate (post baccalaureate) degree programs that have been established at Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies in Information Science, Systems Engineering and Software Engineering, and in an emerging University-wide degree in Information Sciences and Technology. The paper touches on the design of efficient degree structures and curricula, and reports some assessment data collected over the past five years. Degree programs must meet the needs of both the highly trained, traditionally prepared professional and the baccalaureate novice, both of whom are competing for employment in IT and E-Business in particular. To conclude, the author makes a strong case for colleges and universities to depart from secure tradition, preferring a sometimes turbulent, but always exciting, new level of relevancy This is a call to action to put the "edge" back in E-business.