Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1. Background information about participants
Number
Percentage
Gender
57
28
67%
33%
Male
Female
Degree level
41
44
48%
52%
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
Work experience* (mean = 4.0 years)
24
61
28%
72%
No
Yes
IT work experience (mean = 1.7 years)
52
33
61%
39%
No
Yes
* Work experience includes both IT and non-IT experience
the previous three months was 3.8 (and the most common number used was 5). Thirteen
students (15.3%) had not made any attempt to keep up to date during this period, and four
(4.7%) had made use of all nine listed channels.
The information channels are ranked by frequency of use in Table 2. The most frequently
consulted channels were newspaper employment and IT sections and Internet sources.
University instructors had been consulted by about half of the participants during the
previous three months. Other students had also been used as a source of information by quite
a few students (40%). This high level of use of other students to provide information about
employers' skill requirements is understandable, given the easy accessibility of other
students (Klobas & McGill, 1993). Work colleagues were ranked seventh overall, but as only
around a third of the participants had IT work experience, this means that most of those with
prior experience had consulted their colleagues (75% of those with prior IT work experience
had consulted their colleagues). The least used channels were topics and vendor presenta-
tions. It is likely that students were conscious that information about employer skill
requirements derived from topics was not going to be sufficiently up to date to meet their
needs.
Table 3 shows the importance rankings of the individual information channels. The most
highly ranked information channel was Internet sources, such as the Cisco and Lucent sites.
As well as being frequently used, newspaper IT sections and employment pages were also
considered very important (ranked two and three). University instructors were ranked fourth
in importance, which was consistent with their frequency of consultation by students.
Although other students were consulted by many students, they were not considered an
important channel of information (ranked seventh). This suggests that students recognize
that although other students are an easily accessible source of information, they are not
necessarily an accurate or reliable source. In future research, it would be interesting to
determine how well student perceptions match those of employers. Books and vendor
presentations were considered of low importance.
 
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