IT Careers Forum

This is what I am going to on Friday, should be a good day.

The IT industry have noted concerns regarding the skills shortage, historical negative images relating to IT careers, and the fragmented linkages between high school, tertiary and industry IT sectors. This forum will bring together IT educators at secondary and tertiary levels, with government policy makers and IT industry employers as recipients of the graduates from the education sector.

The website address for information about the conference is at: http://naccq08.unitec.ac.nz/

This event will provide an excellent professional development opportunity the sector as we endeavour to create a seamless pathway for IT study and vocational outcomes in New Zealand.

The conference will update us on the progress of government-backed initiatives designed to assist our sector; such as the MIT/Career Services IT career planning pilot which has great potential for the conference’s national audience of IT educators and for other disciplines.

We are hoping for a good turnout from the IT industry, tertiary providers, and especially secondary schools to enable productive and open dialogue to take place, and to address the educational and other challenges facing the IT industry. Importantly the conference will offer insights into how we can better prepare graduates for the broad and interesting range of career options available.

NACCQ Conference 2008 is the 21st annual conference and is the premier computing education conference in New Zealand which spans all disciplines of computing and information technology education. While focusing on tertiary education it also provides links from secondary education and also into the computing industry. This year the conference is adopting as a special theme a one day “IT Careers Forum” at which industry leaders and secondary school teachers will interact with the tertiary sector to address the issues facing the IT industry in the current environment.