Recently, senior management from key U.S. IT firms met with the leadership of the U.S. Department of Labor Employment & Training
Administration at CompTIA's headquarters to discuss strategic workforce development issues. Emily Stover DeRocco, assistant
secretary of labor for the Labor Department's Employment & Training Administration area, shared some important suggestions
with CertMag that may help IT professionals maintain their careers in IT for the long term.
First off, an emphasis on rounding out ones skill set past strictly IT areas is critical. According to DeRocco "Now there is a
substantial need to move beyond technical skills to the development of business skills, project management skills and
leadership skills."
How does this impact the pursuit of IT certifications? "All too often we have looked at certification as the be-all and end-all
in IT workforce training, and it's clearly a much more holistic look now at the worker, at the worker's responsibilities, at
the worker's growth within a company and contribution to the company." Notice how she is not discounting certification but
emphasizing the need to have it as just one means to help you pursue lifelong learning.
DeRocco then goes on to list high-growth industries that will need IT professionals: biotechnology, nanotechnology and
geospatial technology. Since many of the new jobs in IT will not be with strictly IT firms, she adds "At its core, the
need is for basic information technology skills and understanding with sophistication in the advanced manufacturing
arena that is represented by all these emerging industries. Clearly this is a cross-industry fertilization in terms
of our need to skill workers on a career latticerather than a career ladder because jobs and roles aren't vertical
anymore; they are very much cross-industry, and the IT workforce's future in large measure may be in these emerging
industries."
For those worried about the continued trend of outsourcing US jobs, DeRocco advocates the reskilling of workers to meet the
current and upcoming IT job needs.
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