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[First Signs and Traces]A Parallel Postsecondary Universe: The Certification System in Information Technology - October 2000
From one perspective, the new world described here seems confined to the realms of continuing education and workplace training. It seems to have little to do with those of us who play instructional, administrative, custodial, policy, or analytic roles in higher education. Why should we care?
11.1 First, because our economy exhibits a voracious demand for IT workers in a wide range of occupational categories (U.S. Department of Labor, 1997), and, it is claimed, the U.S. system of education isn't producing them (ITAA, 1998). Beyond those earning formal degrees earned in IT fields, though, U.S. college students have considerable potential to fill part of the gap (Adelman, 1997), but the industry looks to the global labor market to fill its needs. That strategy has built-in limits, given public policy concerns about trade, immigration, and intellectual property.
11.2 Second, an industry in need of workers can and will offer incentives, including the reduced opportunity costs of earning credentials other than college degrees--and in a much shorter period of time than that required by degrees--that lead quickly to high starting salaries. If the certification of competence in information technology and telecommunications assumes a status like that of degrees in the global economy, students will respond.
11.3 Third, the emerging system of learning opportunities, assessment, and certification is now of sufficient magnitude that we cannot ignore it in institutional, state or system planning. The demographic "tidal wave" we anticipate rushing at our traditional institutions may turn into little more than a splash if students increasingly opt to participate in a system beyond our ken, and partake of higher education in patterns of attendance that elude our tracking systems (Adelman, 1999).
11.4 Lastly, some colleges and community colleges are buying into and participating in this parallel universe, mixing certifications with degree offerings and serving as agents of both vendor-specific and industry-generic IT preparation. In so doing, they are importing cultures of performance assessment and quality assurance that up to now have been foreign to most collegiate faculties. Comfortable ways of doing business may inevitably be challenged from within.