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Maine IT Workforce Skills Management : a Study for the Maine State Department of Labor

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Maine IT Workforce Skills Management : a Study for the Maine State Department of Labor University of Southern Maine USM Digital Commons Faculty Publications Computer Science 3-31-2011 Maine IT Workforce Skills Management : A study for the Maine State Department of Labor David F. Bantz PhD Univeristy of Southern Maine, [email protected] C. Daniel Paradis Glenn Wilson Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/computer-science-papers Part of the Computer Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Bantz, David F. PhD; Paradis, C. Daniel; and Wilson, Glenn, "Maine IT Workforce Skills Management : A study for the Maine State Department of Labor" (2011). Faculty Publications. 40. https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/computer-science-papers/40 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Computer Science at USM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of USM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. lnformation and lnnovation at the University of Southern Maine Maine IT Workforce Skitts Management A study for the Maine State Department of Labor David Bantz, C. Daniel Paradis and Glenn Wilson March 91, 2011 HD 57 25 .M3 836 20Lt University of Southern Maine Glickman Family Library David Bantz, C. Daniel Paradis and Glenn Wilson Maine lT Workforce Skitts Management A srudy for the Maine State Depørtment of Labor Executive summary From August 2o1o to February 2011 personnel from Information and Innovation at the University of Southern Maine have conducted a study of IT skills needed, possessed and taught in Maine. The goals of this study were to provide fine-grained information to the Maine state Department of Labor to facilitate their workforce development activities. This study concerns the skills sought after by employers, possessed by unemployed and employed workers and taught in education and training establishments with a "bricks and mortar" presence in Maine. It relied on data created by third parties and by study personnel. Anecdotal evidence was gathered from meetings with local industry IT professionals as well. This study does not attempt to estimate demand or supply of a given skill, but it does assess which skills are in greatest and least demand, which skills are in greatest and least supply, and which skills are taught more and less often. The results of data analysis are presented in a new measure, "skill rank disparity," which exposes skill and training gaps and gluts. This study provides certain insights into its results, observing individual cases of skills high in demand and low in supply, for example. Insights are also provided in terms of groups of skills that are often taught, often asked for, and whether these groups of skills are well-represented in the Maine IT workforce. This study also provides specific and actionable recommendations concerning IT in Maine. We recommend: . The creation of a Web-based IT Workforce Marketplace Pilot. o The creation of The Instant Universþ for IT Skills. o Actions to Tighten the Linkage between Curricula and the Marketplace. o Actions to Address the Shadow IT Workforce. 1. David Bantz, C. Daniel Paradis and Glenn Wilson Acknowtedgements and disclaimers Our sincere thanks go to David Klein, Division Director, Bureau of Emplolmrent Services of the Maine Department of Labor for his incisive observations, consistent patience and crucial guidance to us as we navigated a rather tortuous path to our final results. Leighton Cooney, Governor's Readjustment Liaison during the first part of our work, was a major factor in defining our goals, encouraging us to propose the work and asking key (and sometimes difñcult) questions as the work progressed. Bob Hansen, Associate Provost for University Outreach at USM helped shape the program from his experience with training. Susan Nevins of USM's Center for Continuing Education kept us from forgetting the vital role people and business skills play in the success of IT workers. Professors Bruce Andrews and Charles Colgan of USM's Muskie School of Business and its Center for Business and Economic Research discussed this project with us earþ in its inception and provided wise insights and sage guidance. Joe Kumiszca of TechMaine also played a crucial role in supplying us with the survey data that we used for skill data about a subset of Maine's IT workforce, and we would be remiss in not acknowledging the vital anecdotal input to our work from the world of employers, including Jim Smith and Andrea Roma of Unum, Chris Houle then of Quantrix, Don Kennel of IDEXX, Ed McKersie of ProSearch, Jerry Lessard of Fairchild Semiconductor, John Doxey of National Semiconductor and many others. Thanks to Pete Mitchell of IBM for making their projections of IT skills available. Discussions during the LodeStone project with Coastal Counties Worldorce Inc. and Goodwill Industries helped us appreciate the value of a skill-based approach. And thanks to Nick Cheung, a student at USM, who captured the training establishment data. This report was prepared by the University of Southern Maine for the Maine Department of Labor's Bureau of Employment Services with funding from the United States Department of Labor. Since contractors conducting research and evaluation projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express their own judgment freely, this report does not necessarily represent official opinion or policy of the Maine Department of Labor. Although the report mentions specific entities (employers, professional organizations and educational and training institutions) this does not imply any implicit or explicit endorsement of them. Similarþ, the report mentions specific hardware and software products, and here too we do not mean to imply any endorsement of them. 2. David Bantz, C. Daniel Paradis and Glenn Wilson Tabte of Contents Executive summary. ...... t Acknowledgements and disclaimers 2 Introduction 5 How the studywas done 6 Relevant literature. ...........9 Deliverables ............ .........11 Important non-IT skills needed by IT workers... .........11 IT Skills needed in all Job Clusters 11 Sources of data .11 How the results were obtained.............. .13 Results..... 14 Insights.... L4 Skill Gaps and Gluts 3o Sources of data ........... 30 How the results were obtained.............. .......31 Skill equivalence.. ......31 The Scaled Comparison 32 Results..... ....34 Insights..... 34 Others'views of key skills ........ .... 45 IBM ...........45 Global Knowledge Training LLC........... .....46 Training Capabilities 51 3o David Bantz, C. Daniel Paradis and Glenn Wilson Sources of data 51 How the results were obtained...... 52 Results..... 52 Insights....... 53 Summary......... 54 Computer Literacy... 6o Summary.. .6t Conclusions and recommendations.... 63 Conclusions 6S Major recommendations 6+ Web-based IT Worldorce Markeþlace Pilot... 64 The Instant University for IT Ski11s......... 64 Tighten the Linkage between Curricula and the Markeþlace 65 Address the Shadow IT Workforce 65 Future work 6Z Glossary 6g Bibliography ............ 7o Appendix A. Contractual deliverables..... 72 Appendix B. Computer Literacy Skills Guide and Checklist 73 I. Basic Required Computing Operations Skills: .............75 II. Basic Internet Ski11s......... ........Ts III. Basic Email Skills 73 Part z. Applications and Specialized Skills 74 I. Word Processing.... 74 lV. Advanced Email..... 74 4. David Bantz, C. Daniel Paradis and Glenn Wilson lntroduction From August 2o1o to February 2011 personnel from the Information and Innovation at the University of Southern Maine conducted a study of IT skills needed, possessed and taught in Maine. The goals of this studywere to provide fine-grained information to the Maine state Department of Labor to facilitate their workforce development activities. This study concerns the skills sought after by employers, possessed by unemployed and employed workers and taught in education and training establishments with a "bricks and mortar" presence in Maine. It relied on data created by third parties and by study personnel. Anecdotal evidence was gathered from meetings with local industry IT professionals as well. This study does not attempt to estimate demand or supply of a given skill, but it does assess which skills are in greatest and least demand, which skills are in greatest and least supply, and which skills are taught more and less often. The results of data analysis are presented in a new measure, "skill rank disparity," which exposes skill and training gaps and gluts. This study provides certain insights into its results, observing individual cases of skills high in demand and low in supply, for example. Insights are also provided in terms of groups of skills that are often taught, often asked for, and whether these groups of skills are well-represented in the Maine IT workforce. This report begins with a brief discussion of the context in which the report was written, the goals of the study and the methodolory chosen for it. It continues with a brief literature review, followed by sections that address all of the study's deliverables. This report concludes with our conclusions, recommendations and suggestions for future work. TWo appendices document the contractual deliverables and a computer literacy guide and checklist. Bibliographic citations are expressed in parentheses, as (Miller, 2o1o). Background During zoog and 2o1o, two of the authors of this study (Bantz and Wilson) collaborated with the University of Southern Maine (USM) Center for Continuing Education,
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