In this issue:
1. Develop Yourself!
2. New Feature: Check it out -- Streaming Video Interviews
3. IT Skilled Worker Shortage - It's Time for Action
4. Leonard Nimoy Trivia Contest - Second Installment
5. Your Professional and Continuing Education
1. Develop Yourself!
by Rosie Smith, Editor of Influential Trends and e-Commerce Manager, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare
Fifteen years ago, fresh out of college, I was a customer support representative for a proprietary word processing company. I was responsible for training customers how to use the software. In three weeks I'll be leveraging my technology training experience into the exciting arena of e-Commerce for the largest private employer in my hometown.
My career, which has taken me from technology trainer to training director, brought me to this new opportunity. Past positions afforded me not only the essential technical knowledge needed but also sound education on organizational processes which technology supported. Although technology stole my soul early on, it wasn't technology for technology sake that opened new doors. It was my relentless self-directed professional development, beyond hands-on software application expertise.
Professional development is the cognitive and emotional grooming necessary to complement technical expertise. It liberates you to be savvy about your organization, strategic with your contributions, and valuable because you are plugged-in to a network of professional relationships.
No one can own your professional development but you. You must configure a plan and execute it. The daily and monthly options for professional development are limitless with trade journals and magazines, listserves, Web sites, local and professional association meetings. Once a year comes the unmatched professional development opportunity of the Computer Training World (CTW) Conference.
CTW provides a F2F (face-to-face) opportunity for you to grow yourself. This year CTW gives you not one professional development opportunity, but three with its unique three-conferences-in-one programming. This year you can attend the Technology Training Management Conference, The ERP and Large Systems Conference, and The Computer Trainer's Summer Camp all in one trip. You owe it to yourself and your career.
Come spend three invigorating days at CTW, August 21-23, 2000, in San Francisco, CA, USA. Visit http://www.influent.com/ctw2000 or call (508) 651-9531 for complete details. Get on the phone now to make your reservations, you still have time for super saver airfare!
2. New Feature: Check it out -- Streaming Video Interviews
To learn more about CTW2000, watch our streaming video interviews powered by Digital Lava, featuring David Holcombe, President and CEO of Influent Technology Group, Rachel Cheeseman, Executive Director of the Information Technology Training Association (ITTA), as well as Eric Parks, President/CEO of ASK International and Sam Shmikler, CEO and Action Figure of The Periscope Organization.
Simply go to: http://www.influent.com/ctw2000 and click on the "check out our Streaming Video interviews" Digital Lava logo.
3. IT Skilled Worker Shortage - It's Time for Action
by Grant Mydland, Director of the Technology Workforce Coalition, http://www.techcoalition.org and Manager of Government Relations, CompTIA, http://www.comptia.org
At an IT industry conference in April, Robert E. Knowling Jr., Covad Communications President stated, "We have all enjoyed the problem for quite a while. It's time to start enjoying the solution to the skilled IT worker shortage." Several recent IT workforce studies and a report from the congressionally mandated 21st Century Workforce Commission have also added to the "call to action" required to begin implementing solutions to the shortage that is affecting every large and small company in America.
The Technology Workforce Coalition (TWC) is a national coalition that was created by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) and the Information Technology Training Association to advocate federal and state level solutions to the shortage. TWC now has a dozen IT trade associations
and over five hundred IT company members and supporters. TWC advocates several solutions including IT training tax credits, H-1B temporary visas, K-12 curriculum changes, and teacher training incentives to address the shortage.
While TWC supports a multi-faceted approach to eliminate the shortage, it believes the IT training tax credit will have the greatest impact. The
quickest way to add hundreds of thousands of IT skilled workers is to create incentives to help companies fill the available jobs. These companies know what skills are necessary and can make the increased investment in the right IT training programs rapidly enough to begin reducing the IT worker shortage. To encourage industry-driven training programs, IT training tax credit legislation was introduced in Congress and several states.
On April 12, 2000, Arizona Governor Jane Dee Hull signed law H.B. 2442, the Technology Training Tax Credit. The law provides 100% tax credits of up to $1,500 per year per person towards the costs of IT training. Both individuals and businesses are eligible for the tax credit. The IT training tax credit has also been introduced in Maryland and is being considered in California, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington.
This market-based solution makes a lot of economic sense. By filling existing job openings in the highest paying, fastest growing career in the economy, the nation will immediately begin to recover its investment in the form of additional individual and corporate income tax revenue. Other economic sectors would also benefit: A 1999 study showed that for each technology job created in Northern Virginia, another job was created in local service industries.
Federal legislation was recently re-introduced and has a strong chance of passing this year if business leaders throughout the country contact their federal legislators. Whether you are hiring or training IT workers, you need to convey to political leaders how the shortage is affecting your business and why it's time to start enacting IT training tax credits. If you haven't joined TWC yet, please go to http://www.techcoalition.org and get involved in your state and at the federal level to help tackle the biggest obstacle to the growth of the digital economy.
Join the "IT Worker Shortage -- it's Time to Take Action!" panel, session 705, Tuesday, August 22, from 1:30 - 3:00 pm, moderated by Grant Mydland from the Technology Workforce Coalition at the Computer Training World 2000 Conferences & Expo, San Francisco, CA. Visit http://www.influent.com/ctw2000 for complete conference and session details.
4. Leonard Nimoy Trivia - Second Installment
Wanna win GREAT prizes? As we are honored that Mr. Nimoy will be sharing his thoughts as keynote speaker at Computer Training World 2000, we thought it fitting to have Leonard Nimoy trivia in each issue leading up to the Conference. So, let the trivia continue!
Email your answers to mailto:rsmith@influent.com. You need to answer all questions in the four part series (points may be given for creative -- if inaccurate -- responses). Make sure your name and email address is included with your response. The people with the most points at the end of the contest will win fabulous prizes... Winners will be announced in the 9/6/00 issue of Influential Trends.
Trivia Question #3: What is the Vulcan saying with his V hand gesture and what is its origin?
Trivia Question #4: Where did Leonard Nimoy first meet JFK?
5. Your Professional and Continuing Education
Here are some upcoming events for your continuing education and professional development you won't want to miss!
Computer Training World 2000
*Three-Conferences-in-One* format
The ERP and Large Systems Training Conference, Training Management Conference, and The Computer Trainers' Summer Camp August 21-23, 2000, San Francisco, CA
THE event for the computer/technology training profession. This is the event to help you find your way through the issues of rapidly changing technology roll-outs, move from classroom to technology-delivered instruction, and address certification, outsourcing, and retraining staff challenges. CTW is the ONLY event specifically targeted to those in the computer training industry. See http://www.influent.com/ctw2000.
