IT Disconnect: High Demand / Low Supply
Monday March 2, 2009  7pm
Lecture / Seminar

Presented by Acadia Science Cafe

Contrary to popular opinion there is a rising demand for Computer Scientists and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professionals. This is being driven by a steady growth in the industry that now has 20% more people employed than in 2000 and one of the lowest unemployment rates (3%) of any sector over the last 10 years. Add to this an attrition rate fuelled by baby-boomer retirements (40% of the federal IT staff are now eligible) and we have a forecasted demand in Canada of no less than 15,000 workers per year for the next 7 years, 7,200 of which will require university degrees. The bad news is that enrolment in computer science programs began dropping in 2002 following the Dot Com bust and have only recently started to recover. Most computer science departments in Canada, US and the UK are down 50% from their enrolment in 2000. What is the reason for this disconnect? Why are so few young people seemingly disinterested in the ICT field? What will this mean to our economy in 10 years? What does it say about our educational systems? And what can be done to turn the situation around? The talk will explore these questions and present recent findings from studies conducted in North America and the UK.

Meet in Perkins Café, SUB
Pricing & Tickets
Poster
Acadia University
30 Highland Avenue
Wolfville, Nova Scotia


       

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