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vnewman
vnewman
6/24/2016 7:24:49 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: To get away from that depressing "education" subject
@JohnBarnes - you raise a good point: you can't move forward if you're always stuck maintaining the status quo. And that's what happens - all the resources are devoted to being reactive to the immediate needs of the business.

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faryl
faryl
6/21/2016 10:56:30 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: Skills
I think part of the issue is that they're saying there's a lack of technical talent, but the positions they need to fill are strategy/management based. If I'm understanding it correctly, the shortage isn't necessarily the technical talent needed for implementation, it's the business/leadership talent to recognize and direct what needs to be implemented. When you're dealing with non-tech industry companies, anything technology related can almost be considered a language-barrier - especially those still run by "old school" executives. The key isn't so much finding technical talent as it is finding leadership talent that understands - or is comfortable with - technology. (Which is generally easier to find than tech talent that's comfortable/interested in leadership)

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faryl
faryl
6/21/2016 10:41:21 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: Skills
The companies you mentioned are also willing to invest money & time for employee training and development. Boeing does that too. Companies that recognize that it's more cost-effective to retain talent & promote from within are better able to make sure their existing employees' skills can match the current needs.

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faryl
faryl
6/21/2016 10:32:46 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: Skills
Absolutely. I think part of the issue here too, is that the sought-after skills are more strategy and "big picture" based, which takes a different type of analytics than programming or network management entails. Technical skills can be taught, but the "soft skills" required for some of the less hands-on positions are something that needs to be ingrained earlier on.

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faryl
faryl
6/21/2016 10:25:12 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: To get away from that depressing "education" subject
That's a really good point. I think it's something CIOs struggle with to justify their head counts in general too...even with talent, most of the changes that offer a high ROI, require a bigger investment up front than many businesses are willing (or able) to spend.

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DHagar
DHagar
6/21/2016 3:45:12 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: Skills
@JohnBarnes, I see your point.  You are probably, sadly, correct.

It will be left to those with a moral commitment to make their piece a stronger contributor - but the training/education systems will lag behind. 

Let's hope those who put in the "extra effort" to truly develop the foundational skills win not only a moral victory but possibly a "slight edge" in their place in the market.

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mpouraryan
mpouraryan
6/21/2016 2:05:52 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: Skills
What you're advocating, @JohnBarnes, is against the current "orthodoxy" that the GOP is advocating (without getting too political here) as we've seen a tirade of opposition to common core and some of the so-called "choice" movements at the K-12 level in general--and we have seen a gradual implosion of Public Universities.

 

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JohnBarnes
JohnBarnes
6/21/2016 7:38:57 AM
User Rank
Platinum
To get away from that depressing "education" subject
A separate problem for CIOs also caused by the shortage of tech talent is that there's a vicious circle: if you only have just barely enough good tech people to keep things running at all, you have no spare resources (that you can use) with which to show the rest of the business what they could be doing or what they're missing out on.  The opportunity costs of the tech talent deficit become invisible because the immediate costs are so high, so the tendency for the rest of the company is to just figure that tech talent shortages are the way the world is, like gravity or taxes.

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JohnBarnes
JohnBarnes
6/21/2016 7:33:52 AM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: Skills
Sadly, DH, I don't think the basic market solution -- people would like better jobs and business would like better workers, so they should work out some livable way to pay for training and education -- is going to work here, because education for work is a classic case of a multiplayer, multilevel Prisoner's Dilemma -- i.e. the archetypal situation where markets break down. The actual incentive for individual students (or their parents) is to be the student who goofed off and faked it through a really good program that all or nearly all other students passed honestly (that way you get the benefits without doing the work). And the real incentive for businesses and communities is to have a bogus school (cheap and happy!) in a good educational system. And even at the system level, the basic incentive is to have your local schools be Ferris Bueller High in a sea of hyper-achievers, which means preserving the opportunities to cheat and slack for yourself while pretending to tighten up.

The great education systems, worldwide, are mostly ones with very little democracy or local control. The temptation to  "vote yourself smart", and the rewards for being the party sheep in the grind flock, are simply too great.

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DHagar
DHagar
6/20/2016 9:21:35 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: Skills
@JohnBarnes, extremely well said!  I believe you have excellent insight and material for a best-selling non-fiction book about the failing systems to produce the competitive workforce we need for today and in preparation for tomorrow.

We clearly are producing robotic thinking and people who can push the cheese levers, but are totally ill-prepared to solve problems - which is why machines are thinking better than the humans (ie real robots).

I guess the industry examples you earlier pointed out, Apple, Google, AT&T, etc. will continue to attract the cream-of-the-crop - and justifiably so - until more industry, and/or we set higher goals than the existing patterned outdated learning.

Let me know when you write the book, I will be one of the first purchasers.

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