Preliminary Report on Employer Interviews

This resource, provided by Florida State University, is a preliminary report of interviews conducted with employers who recruit and employ individuals in various Information Technology (IT) positions. The interviews were conducted by the Assessing Information Technology Educational Pathways That Promote Deployment and Use of Rural Broadband project. The goal of this National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education project is to strengthen the employee pool of information technology/broadband staffing and to improve educational support related to broadband, telecommunications, and networks for future and current IT employees in Northwest Florida and beyond. The interviews were designed to address the following research questions:

• How do the IT/broadband skills graduates gain through two-year community college programs compare to the needs expressed by employers in non-metro/metropolitan areas?
• What, if any, gaps exist between the skills non-metro/metropolitan employers report their IT/broadband employees need and the skill sets new professionals report they need to be successful as IT/broadband employees?
• What, if any, differences are there between the skills needed for IT/broadband employees in non-metro and metropolitan areas?
• How can two-year community college IT/broadband program curricula be modified to best
  meet the specific needs of employers and IT/broadband employees in non-metro/metropolitan
  areas?

The report is divided into the following sections: Related Literature, Method, Findings, Preliminary Conclusions, and References.