Pioneer Valley Regional IT Workforce Roundtable
Presented by the Western Mass Information Technology Partnership
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Our Mission
The Western Mass Information Technology
Partnership is dedicated to providing a forum
to develop and implement a strategy to align
business IT skills requirements with regional
training resources to fill current and future
workforce needs that will support business
growth.
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The Challenge
• Identify specific IT Occupational skill gaps that
employers have identified as problematic
• Identify the misalignment in the workforce
training system, or
• Define the new skills competency
requirements
• Revise curriculum and build new capacity into
the workforce training system
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IT Sector Initiative Goals
Creation of a definitive IT workforce collaborative
for the Pioneer Valley
To develop and identify key areas of IT focus
To identify and agree on key occupations and the
skills during the beginning phase of this initiative
To recognize that detailed employer job profiling
will be required to recommend workforce training
curriculum and capacity expansion, revisions or
additions
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The REB’s have been here before!
Information and Telecommunication Technology Training Alliance (IT²)
• Two Rounds of USDOL ETE H-1B grant Funds: $4.5M
2000-2005
• National recognition by the National Alliance of Workforce Boards for the
impact we've had in our collective regions
Upgraded the skills of 1,604 employed, unemployed and under-employed
workers, in high-end, specialized training to meet the skills shortage of workers
in our regions’ information and telecommunications industries. Training was
accomplished through a demand and customer-choice driven program design
that included Employer-Based training grants to 39 corporate partners for 1448
workers, and Individual-based training via ITA/Vouchers to 156 unemployed and
under-employed individuals
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IT² Results
Skills Attainments
(Individuals can attain multiple skills)
Total Enrolled:
1,604
Degrees and Technical Certifications
880
Other Employer-Recognized Skills (i.e., Non-Credit
Computer Programming and Other Technical
Courses)
Total Number of Skill Attained:
Both Grants:
New or Upgraded Job
Wage Increased
% of Wage Increase
Corporate
937
1817
Individuals
Total
269
75
344
1100
78
1178
9%
11%
10%
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IT Initiative Background/Timeline
2013-present
Three IT symposiums were convened in 2014 with subject matter experts
from business and academia to provide information on research and
business occupational skills requirements.
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IT Partnership Development Steps
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Define regional workforce challenges (completed)
Confirm workforce solution framework (completed)
Assess Regional IT Workforce Needs (completed)
Inventory IT programs in the region (Completed)
Define Regional IT Workforce Focus Areas
(Completed)
6. Launch pilot programs (Fall 2014, tentative)
7. Secure resources to scale programs (Fall 2014,
Spring 2015)
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Western Mass Regional
IT Workforce Competitiveness Challenges
 Aging Workforce
 Limited Population Growth
 Young Worker Flight
 Further Cultural Diversity
 Growing Sophistication of Job Tasks and Roles
 Increased Pace of Innovation in Technology and Equipment
 Lack of Career Opportunity Awareness
 Evolving Industry Base with new IT needs
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How would you describe the impact of the shortage of qualified
IT candidates has on business growth and success?
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Can’t grow if you cant hire new people
Growth is stunted due to lack of qualified employees
Lack of candidates impacts growth & speed to grow
Elongates projects
Takes longer to fill jobs
Automation abilities fuel increased productivity
Companies delay bringing equipment because they have to
spend money on IT salaries
– Impairs Innovation
– Keeps Pioneer Valley area "behind the rest of the world"
technologically, affects the general knowledge of the area on IT
– New business, especially high tech, will not relocated to the
area because of the lack
of technically
trained workforce. 10
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How do you see the region’s demand for IT services expanding or
contracting over the next three to five years?
• All aspects of businesses require it, younger generation born
with computer
• Cloud based services across multiple scenes (Smartphone,
tablet, PC, TV, etc); IT is in all industries (Manufacturing,
Insurance, Banking, Medical)
• Combination of community development & continuing growth
of dependence in technology
• Data Analytics, Hosting Services Information Security,
Networking (Wireless Fiber) Regulatory Compliance Mobility
• Digital and mobile media and services will be in greater
demand
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What are the top three soft
skills that are lacking in
existing IT employees?
•
•
•
Communication
Problem Solving
Customer Service
What are the greatest
weaknesses you see in
supervisory-level IT employees?
• Performance
Management
• Building Effective Teams
• Project Management
• Conflict Management
• Staff Development Skills
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Which specific IT specialties do you feel there is currently a shortage
of qualified candidates in:
Networking Engineers
Software Engineers
Tier 2/ Tier 3 Help Desk
Web Programmers
Systems Engineers
IT Management
Tier 1 Help Desk
All
0
2
4
6
8
Your Connection
to Workforce
Number
of Organizations
Development
10
Responding
12
14
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Draft of IT Workforce Focus Areas Identified
• Expand K-12 IT curriculum
program adoption efforts
• Grow K-12 after school programs
• Launch regional IT incumbent
training collaborative
• Build a partnership of 20+
organizations for IT internship
experience and/or placement
• Develop Career Ladders for
Hardware, Software, and
Networking
• Increase career awareness
outreach and leveraging regional
colleges more effectively
• Conduct skill gap assessment for
IT occupations and launch 2 new
credentials to support
Manufacturing and/or Healthcare
IT Needs
–
–
–
–
Data Analyst?
Big Data Management?
Advanced Hospital Coding?
Medical Analytics?
• Increase and accelerate
community college IT program
enrollment and credentials
awarded and
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IT Workforce Training Inventory
• Inventory of all Schools and colleges providing
IT training programs in the Pioneer Valley
Analysis of the specific IT programs and
curriculum
Analysis of regional graduation totals
Analysis on where “in-demand” skills are presently
being taught or are available
For 2014, it is not a labor force quantity issue, it is
a quality issue
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IT Roundtable Open Discussion
• Supply and Demand (Quantity and Quality)
• Key occupations and competencies
• Emphasis tends to be more software driven for skills gap
challenges
• Specific employer challenges
- Incumbent workforce
- New pipeline workers
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Needs, Skills & Occupations
• Security (Cyber Security)- a leading topic for all employers
• Open Source- lively discussion on the benefits and challenges on focusing
on providing primary product training (Microsoft, Oracle, etc.) to the
exclusion of open source. The dominant use of Drupal (open source) for
web design was the example used in support of some open source
training
• Web programming
 Responsive Design
 Scaling
Computer
Apple products
Windows-based
• Database Administration
 SQL
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Needs, Skills & Occupations
•
•
•
•
Business Analysts
Network Support Analyst
Project Management
 Foundational and Agile Skills
Developer Skills
 Java
 Software Development Life Cycle
 Application Programming Interfacing (API)
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Outreach and Recruiting
Self-Employed/Hidden Tech
• Freelancers
• Consultants
• A component of the
workforce that needs to be
targeted
• Social media will play an
important role in marketing
campaign to possible
trainees
Trainee Pool Sources
• Career Centers
• Unemployed college
graduates
• College career centers
• Employer Partner
Recommendations
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Examples of Specific Company IT Needs
Yankee Candle
• Business/ Program Analysts Development in Vendor
Management competencies
Baystate Health Systems
• Integration challenge
• Linkages between medical devices
Peoples Bank
• Leadership
• Strategic Planning
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Employer Recommended Areas of Schools/
College Focus
• Utilization of Software and Applications used
in real-time business processes
• Development of relevant problem solving/
critical thinking
• More comprehensive development of Project
Managers
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Next Steps
• Compile the information from this roundtable and follow-up with individual
employers for more detailed job profiling to drive program development
• Reviewing funding opportunities
• Set selection parameters for trainees
• The development of a strategic outreach and marketing process for
appropriate applicants
• Occupational concentrations will initially be in five (5) focus areas
1. Web Development
2. Business Analysis
3. Strategic Project Management
4. Database Administration
5. Cyber Security
Specific skills and competencies will fall under these five core areas
Smaller workgroups will be created to guide development of workforce
strategies in each of these five key areas.
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