Addressing Information Technology Workforce Needs in an Urban Setting

This project is designed to address significant information technology (IT) workforce needs by determining why so few underrepresented students are enrolling in IT career programs at the college; to create, adapt, and deploy tools to recruit a more diverse IT student body, and to retain and support those students. It also provides teacher training and curriculum revisions and leverages industry partnerships to create new opportunities for students. The student body at the college is very diverse, being composed of 86% underrepresented students. Conversely, IT programs at the college are much less diverse than the general student population, in fact the programs are remarkable for their lack of diversity in terms of ethnicity and gender. Because the college has a history of recruiting, supporting, and graduating students from underrepresented groups, once it is determined why so few students are entering IT career programs, outreach efforts are being modified to recruit underrepresented students into IT programs, and additional support mechanisms are being developed to improve the chances of students of successfully completing their program.