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A new report released by the Technology Association of Maine shows the state has a healthy information technologies workforce but that training in new technology is in demand among members of the industry.
The report is the result of a survey of 288 Maine IT industry businesses and states there is a demand among IT professionals for “educational opportunities, especially in the form of just-in-time skills training to address the training needs of emerging and disruptive technologies.” TechMaine is the statewide trade association for Maine’s technology industries, and it created the report as part of a federally funded project to address the impact of the Brunswick Naval Air Station’s impending closure.
“We worked with employers to try to find out what their needs are, to identify what the job opportunities are,” said Joseph Kumiszcza, the executive director of TechMaine.
Kumiszcza said part of TechMaine’s ongoing work is analyzing the trends in Maine’s IT industry so companies can anticipate their future needs.
The top three types of businesses surveyed were software companies, IT service providers and government or non-profit organizations. The survey included 20 other types of business as well. The report found 91 percent of Maine’s IT workforce has an associates degree or higher education level. It states, “The pipeline of future talented workers looks very promising,” and says the highest ACT scores among high school students in Maine were from those planning on majoring in mathematics or computers. Kumiszcza said the kinds of skills employers are looking for varies by region.
“It almost breaks down geographically,” Kumiszcza said. “The folks in the business in the southern part of the state were looking … for entrepreneurial students. Those that really have the skills to get into creating new programs and looking under the hood of technology, rather than those certified in” an everyday vendor computer program.
Kumiszcza said companies that keep technology systems running are the ones looking for people trained in vendor programs. He said development shops in the central part of Maine had an even greater need of people with such training.
George Markowsky, professor and chair of computer science at the University of Maine, said the IT industry is an “important sector in the Maine economy. It has grown a lot over the years.”
Markowsky, who helped found TechMaine, said UMaine identifies what skills fit students who want to go into the IT industry and then helps them put together a package of courses that will allow them to reach their intended career goal.
“We don’t train students specifically for Maine, and so, we train them kind of to have a broad background in computer science and then we combine it with specific courses that help them fit their specific area,” Markowsky said.
Respondents to TechMaine’s survey reported the skills their workforce members most desired to acquire were training in areas such as Web 2.0, wireless technologies, mobile applications — such as those found in iPhones — and the programming language Java, among others. Kumiszcza suggested UMaine open up courses to current industry professionals to attend lectures and offer fractionalized credits for their time. He felt that would keep Maine’s IT workforce knowledgeable about the emerging technologies most in demand. He said it would be a “valuable resource for the business community.” The report suggests “the ability to receive quality training in Maine, in a timely and cost-effective manner, will play a significant role in the employability and productivity of these workers.”
John Gregory, IT director at UMaine, said a large part of the role UMaine is playing in the IT industry in the state is networking. He said the university is involved in a two-year-old project to build a network to share research and connect people and organizations with technology at colleges they might not otherwise have had access to without physically going to the campuses to use it. He said it is a national effort and that connectivity between people and technology is important because it will determine the kind of skills people will need in the future in the IT industry.
“We’re bringing 10 gigabites per second to the campus. I think we’re leading, in the Northeast, anyway, in that area,” Gregory said. “Building that network will take people with technological skills and knowledge, and once it’s built, it will create or permit other jobs that involve technology in specific disciplines.”
Kumiszcza said networking opportunities between the IT industry and universities like UMaine are “crucial.” TechMaine is preparing to implement an online training program on the organization’s Web site to help notify technology workers of what employers are currently demanding, which Kumiszcza said would be open to students.
“It will allow us to help the university build, I think, a more relevant content,” said Kumiszcza, who added one of TechMaine’s goals is to reach out to the university to help it improve.
