Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
of all of the items in the questionnaire). The questionnaire contained three types of items. The
first type asked about:
•
Age
•
Gender
•
Amount of previous work experience (both total and IT experience).
The second type of question related to the degree students were undertaking and their
perceptions of:
•
Whether the skills provided by their degree are those employers require
•
The importance of industry certification for their future employment.
The third type of question related to the information that students might use to keep
up to date with what skills employers require. Information about IT is available from a variety
of sources in a variety of formats, and the term “information channel” can be used to describe
the various combinations of sources and formats of information. The questions listed
information channels that may be used to keep up to date and asked participants whether they
had used each channel within the last 3 months, and also to rate the importance of each
channel to them as a means of knowing what skills are in demand. Importance was measured
on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from (1) “Not important” to (5) “Vital.” The initial
list of channels of information was drawn from Klobas and McGill's (1993) report of the
methods used by IT professionals to keep up to date with developments in IT. Several
additional channels were included after consultation with industry contacts. The final list of
information channels contained the following:
•
Newspaper employment pages
•
Newspaper IT sections
•
University instructors
•
Other students
•
Work colleagues
•
Magazines (e.g.,
Packet Magazine
)
•
Internet sources (e.g., Cisco, Lucent)
•
Books
•
Vendor presentations.
The participants in the study were 85 students (57 male, 28 female), with an average age
of 26.1. Participants were at undergraduate (41 students or 48%) or postgraduate level (44
students or 52%). The participants had, on average, 4.0 years of work experience of which
1.7 years was in the IT industry. Table 1 summarizes some of the background information
about the participants in this study.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Overall, the students appeared to be diligent in their efforts to keep up to date with
employers' skill requirements. The average number of channels used by the students during
