As part of the President’s State of the Union address on Tuesday he mentioned a need to focus on education that will lead to future jobs – namely tech jobs.
The President specifically mentioned P-Tech, a tech-focused public high school in New York City that runs from “grades 9 – 14″ and lets students ultimately graduate with an Associates degree. But there are several tech education programs that go beyond traditional IT training and computer science.
High schools have been making the news over the past year or so for courses that encourage students to conceptualize and create mobile apps. During the fall semester of 2011, Winchester High School in Massachusetts offered a class called “Designing Applications for Android” that covered the mobile app creation process from idea through testing. Winchester Patch reported:
Four-year WHS Technology Teacher Daniel Downs, realized that the future of technology is moving toward mobile devices. He has created a curriculum that challenges the students in the design, implementation, and testing process …
The Designing Applications for Androids class, in two months, has designed and published 32 original Children’s Games. … These are all currently published on the class’s tablet computers. Currently students are designing Apps to potentially replace the school’s paper agenda planners.
Bryant High School in Arkansas started offering a mobile app development course this year. From Arkansas Matters:
It’s the only school in the state offering a class in one of the most sought after careers, creating mobile apps for smartphones.
“So we are starting with the Android platform and then they are going to work with the Apple software,” said Career and Technical teacher Marcus Nixon, who says the district made the class available, recognizing it as a hot job.
After school programs also getting in on the movement, giving students who don’t have access to a dedicated school-sponsored class the chance to learn new skills and try their hand in an emerging field. From Education Week:
A growing number of after-school programs for boys and girls that draw on students’ interest in applications for mobile devices are evolving throughout the country. Such programs can be a gateway to learning computer programming, as well as business and marketing lessons, which educators believe equip students with lifelong skills to succeed in college and the workforce.
Once students hit college, there are options that will help them tailor their education to specific tech roles. In addition to the long running computer science, computer engineering, developing and web design majors offered at many colleges and universities, innovative new programs are starting to emerge. Webster University in Missouri recently added a Mobile Computer major to its offerings. According to the press release:
“These students are at the center of mobile development,” said Walker School Dean Benjamin Ola. Akande. “They will be qualified to analyze, design, implement and test mobile applications as well as develop the required skills to maintain and update existing mobile applications. Their computing knowledge and technical understanding will allow them to move an organization into the mobile computing arena.”
For those no longer in school, there is a growing trend of online education that gives anyone the ability to learn popular programming languages, HTML and other skills from the comfort of their own home and on their own schedule.
These programs, classes and efforts are definitely needed. Freelancer.com recently published a list of the 50 fastest growing online job trends for the end of 2012. The drastic increase in job postings for some of these positions is telling. The top 5 most in demand tech jobs were:
- Web Hosting – a 3,340% increase over Q3
- Software Testing – a 2,554% increase
- Website Testing – a 2,055% increase
- Website Management – a 639% increase
- Engineering – a 507% increase
This isn’t a freak occurrence. On U.S. News’ list of Best Jobs of 2013 software developer came in at #7, web developer was #9 and computer programmer landed #13. Software developer topped Forbes’ Top 10 Jobs of 2013 list with nearly 71,000 jobs added since 2010. Web developer, information security analyst and computer network architect appear together at #8 on the same list and experienced more than 15,000 new jobs in the past few years. On the more tech-focused list of the Top 10 Most In Demand IT Job Titles (put together by IT Business Edge) software engineer came in first place, software developer was third, java developer came in at #4, .net developer was #6 and web developer came in at #7.
And the trend isn’t expected to slow down anytime soon. Computer engineering made it onto U.S. News’ list of 10 Businesses That Will Boom in 2020 and “computer occupations” topped the publication’s “Where the Jobs Will be in 2020” list.
As you can see, tech jobs certainly are in demand. Luckily, quite a few schools and programs are already working to help give students the skills and training today’s (and tomorrow’s) job require.