PATHWAYS: CHOOSING THE BEST CAREER ROUTE FOR YOU

PURSUING THE DATA SCIENCE DEGREE The UA system retools to teach real-world innovation BY KARL D. SCHUBERT, PH.D.

This story begins about a decade ago, when I was invited to participate on the University of Arkansas’ College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council, whose members are engineering alumni and national industry leaders committed to the College’s pursuit of excellence in research activities, scholarship, and academic programs. The Advisory Council’s goal is to ensure personal and professional growth for future generations of engineering leaders.

As it turned out, we on the Advisory Council discovered something disturbing: It appeared that the engineering students, over the years, had become less and less able to solve problems that they hadn’t already seen. Also, they weren’t very good at working on teams. I was asked to head a subcommittee to look harder at these issues, and what we basically concluded was that the Engineering College was training the creativity and innovation out of the students.

How was the College doing that? Well, by giving these students a toolkit and saying this is the process you use to solve problems—and more or less sticking to that method without ever giving them open-ended problems or problems involving teams. As a consequence, these engineering students had become used to having everything handed to them, which is a perilous way to prepare for real life.

The first thing we did was to discuss our findings with Arkansas companies that were potential employers of our engineering grads. “We need to fix that,” they all agreed. But we soon found that this was only the spear tip of the issue. One day Engineering Dean John English and College of Business Dean Matt Waller were talking, and Dean Waller said, “We’ve got the same problem in the business college.”

So the two deans retained me to analyze the situation further and then to develop a way to reintroduce innovation back into the program. In the bigger picture, the idea was to create an innovation concentration in which students from both the College of Engineering and the College of Business could take courses together that would include real-world problems and a team-based, student-led, open-ended way of approaching these problems, through innovation and creativity.

This pilot program, which I developed five years ago with a courageous instructor, Mrs. Leslie Massey, was called the Honors Innovation Experience. I started with honors students because they can be more flexible— plus they’re often among our best students. I knew that if we told them the class was an experiment, they would respond to that—and they did, putting in extra hours to help make the experiment a success.

At first it was just the engineering college—a two-semester class with 20 students. First semester we talked to the students about the innovation process and the innovation ecosystem. They ultimately formed teams and picked a project to work on. The students basically had to do the project themselves, to the point of doing a market analysis, a definition of the problem, customer interviews, minimal viable product, cost estimate, some scaling information, and building proof of concept (if it was possible to do so for that project). We had a successful first year.

The second year we doubled the class to 40 students, and this time we made a major change in our process. In the first year we had found the mentors first, and the teams were then given a project by the mentors—all except for one team. That particular mentor said, “No. I’m not going to do it that way. What I want to do is say, ‘Here are the areas I work in. If you pick a project in my area, then I can mentor you.’” That mentor’s team did

continued on page 50

THE TWO-YEAR ROUTE 5 reasons to start your IT career at a community college

BY COLLIN CALLAWAY, ED.D.

If you're thinking about a career in Information Technology, the best pathway may be closer, more affordable, and faster than you think. Check out these top reasons to choose an IT career—and why you should launch your journey at an Arkansas community college.

1. IT skills are in demand by employers across all industries. Information Technology is among the fastest growing career fields in the country. Nationally, IT jobs are projected to grow 12 percent by 2028, and growth is even higher for certain occupations like information security and software development. A recent survey of 160 Arkansas businesses identified technology and computer proficiency as the top technical skill sought in job applicants. And it’s not just tech companies that seek employees with these skills—think healthcare, financial services, education, manufacturing, transportation, retail, and many more. 2. Community college is the best choice to launch an IT career. You don’t have to go to college for four or five years to start a career in IT. Across the state of Arkansas are 22 conveniently located community colleges offering remote learning options, flexible scheduling, small classes, tuition less than half of a four-year university, and scholarship opportunities. You can save money by living at home, or you can attend classes part time while you work. In two years or less, you can get the skills you need to stand out in the crowd and land your dream IT job. 3. Community colleges offer IT training in many areas. Coding, cybersecurity, computer repair and maintenance, computer networking, Cloud computing, gaming, software development, web and mobile app development, information services, computer-aided drafting—they’re all available at Arkansas community colleges. You can also earn specific industry credentials such as Cisco Certified Networking, CompTiaA+ Networking and Security, and Amazon web services. These skills can lead to jobs with starting average salaries from $28,000 to $32,000 per year.

4. Personal skills are also essential to a successful IT career. In addition to technical skills, employers look for job applicants with a strong work ethic, plus skills in communication, teamwork, time management, and critical thinking. Employers know that professionals with effective personal skills make the best long-term employees and are better prepared to handle increasing levels of responsibility (think pay raises and promotions). Community colleges design IT training programs to embed these personal skills in assignments, hands-on projects, and work-based learning. 5. A career in IT requires ongoing training to stay up to date on skills. The world is changing faster than ever, and so is the field of Information Technology. Community colleges provide ongoing training to help you stay current on the latest developments. These classes can be as short as a single day, or longer depending on the depth of the training. Whether you’re new to the field or a career veteran, upgrading skills to keep up with the changing IT world is essential to your continued success.

Dr. Collin Callaway is Senior Policy Director, Arkansas Community Colleges.

THE APPRENTICESHIP ADVANTAGE Capability meets opportunity much, much faster

BY LONNIE EMARD

Registered Apprenticeships are a game changer for both employers and job candidates. In a world in which technology is reshaping businesses by the second, employers can “grow their own” specifically targeted tech talent. And for people preparing themselves for a tech career, the increasing need for tech expertise means that old barriers are being set aside in the interest of widening the available talent pool. Apprenticeships are an idea whose time has undeniably come.

And yet it’s not a slam dunk: Many people—on both sides of the demand/supply equation—still have a hard time getting their heads around the idea of apprenticeships. They’ve been thinking about it in the old way for so long that they can’t break out of that mindset.

I like to say that “at the intersection of capability and opportunity lies the road to success.” Traditionally, though, it took years to arrive at that intersection. Employers stuck rigidly to the stance that for most IT occupations, they wanted their job candidates to have a four-year computer science degree. “We think that will prepare you and give you the exposure to be ready to contribute,” employers said. So for young people who wanted to pursue a tech career, that was just How It Was. For both, then, this idea of the intersection of capability and opportunity was a single point that happened only upon the candidate’s graduation from a four-year university, then upon his/her scoring a job interview at a desirable company, and ultimately upon the company’s offer of a position. It was a long, narrow, and costly path to success.

Not only that, it didn’t really work. It didn’t work because there wasn’t enough of a supply of tech talent graduating to meet the corporate tech talent demand. But quantity was only one of the problems. The other problem was about quality: A four-year college degree doesn’t necessarily equip someone for a tech job. It gets them some life learning and a bit of maturity—all of which is valuable. But just because someone goes through four years of college doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily be more productive in a particular IT job than somebody coming in as an apprentice—someone who’s been preparing himself or herself, taking certificate courses, learning on their own or on another job.

The reason four-year degrees might not prepare a candidate in the way an old-thinking employer might wish for is that, traditionally, a four-year education is more theory-driven than industry-driven. At ACDS, we’re trying to address that problem by urging employers who find that that system isn’t working for them to engage with higher education to change the curriculum—to make it more practical, more geared to the needs of industry. Community colleges have made that shift a little bit, but many four-year universities are hesitant—resistant even. “We’re research, we’re preparation, we’re about learning, we’re not a training organization.”

I’m pleased to say that the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has worked with employers to revamp the curriculum, blending business and IT so that grads will have a more practical, hands-on training for what today’s employers will actually demand of them. But even so, there still aren’t enough four-year grads to supply industry’s tech demand.

So to me, and to my colleagues at ACDS, the obvious answer is an apprenticeship system. But for that to reach its full potential, two major things have to change: One is a change of mindset on the part of business. The traditional way isn’t supplying enough tech talent for industry, so they have to shift their thinking to reach candidates sooner and earlier in the continuum of tech talent, rather than only after he or she graduates with a four-year degree.

They need to think, “I’m reaching a student, I’m reaching a career-changer, I’m reaching somebody who has already determined they can’t afford college. It’s a much broader audience and I’m meeting them earlier in their career path. So what if they aren’t fully equipped when I meet them? I’m making the mental continued on page 52