Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 2. Information channels ranked by frequency of use
Rank
Information Channel
Number
Percentage
1
Newspaper employment pages
56
65.9
2
Newspaper IT sections
52
61.2
3
Internet sources (e.g., Cisco, Lucent)
47
55.3
4
University instructors
43
50.6
5
Other students
34
40.0
6
IT magazines (e.g., Packet Magazine )
29
34.1
7
Work colleagues
24
28.2
8
Books
20
23.5
9
Vendor presentations
17
20.0
In addition to the items about methods used to keep up to date, participants were also
asked several questions that addressed whether they believed they were, in fact, obtaining
the skills employers required. A majority of participants believed that their degree would
provide the skills employers require (67.1% yes, 5.9% no, and 27.1% not sure). This high level
of confidence suggests that although only around 50% of students had consulted their
instructors about employer skill requirements during the previous 3 months (and instructors
were only given a medium ranking of importance), students implicitly accept that instructors
know what skills students require. Industry certification was also seen as an important means
to ensure that students obtain the necessary skills (mean importance score was 4.18/5 for
those students not yet working in the IT industry).
Demographic Differences in Use and Importance
Patterns of use and perceptions of importance were further examined to determine
whether gender, level of study, or previous IT work experience had an influence. Differences
Table 3. Information channels ranked by importance
Rank Information Channel
Mean
Standard
Deviation
1
Internet sources (e.g., Cisco, Lucent)
3.55
1.40
2
Newspaper IT sections
3.38
1.44
3
Newspaper employment pages
3.30
1.30
4
University instructors
2.88
1.42
5
IT magazines
2.62
1.43
6
Work colleagues
2.54
1.43
7
Other students
2.41
1.13
8
Books
2.24
1.34
9
Vendor presentations
2.13
1.32
 
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