With the globalisasi of information technology (IT) wordwide access to the Internet, people from all areas of learning are finding themselves using some form of information technology in te workplace. The corporate word has seen a boom in the use of IT tools, but conversely, not enough people with IT : kills that can enter the workplace and be productive with minimal on – the – job training.
A recent issue of the New York Times report that many companies are looking for smart students who may have a budding interest in IT. Some companies, traying to encourage students to attend interview, provide good salary packages and challenging work environments. For example , one Amerika IT consulting company offers high salaries, annual bonuses, and immediate stock options to potensial recuits. It also brings in 25 to 40 prospective applicants at a time for a two-day visit to the company. This time includes interviews, team exercises and social events. The idea behind the team exercises is that the applicants get to see that they will be working with other smart people doing really interesting things, rather than sitting alone writing code.
In the past 10 years, employers have seen marked benefits from collaborative projects in product development. Apart from the work environment, there is also a similar body of research indicating that smalls team – based instruction can lead to different kind of desirable educational results. In order to prepare IT graduates to meet these workplace requirement, colleges and universities are also beginning to include team – based educational models.
One of the leaders in promoting team – based education is the American Intercontinental University ( AIU ), which has campuses word-wide. AIU offers programs in IT with a major portion of the curriculum based on team project. AIU has a large body of international students and stundents from different educational backgrounds. This team – based learning gives the students a sense of social and technical support withing the group, and of inherent problems encountered when working with others.
Team – oriented instruction has not been the common mode of delivery in traditional college settings. However, since most college graduates who choose to go into an IT work environment will encounter some from of teamwork at work, it is to their advantage that tey are educated using collaborative learnin and that they are taugt the tools needed to work with different peoplein achieving common goals or objectives.