At the IT Convergence Zone: A Rapid Development Model for Skill Standards and Curriculum

Community colleges must offer industry relevant programs.  Especially in this era of scarce funding, industry sector and course content selection is a daunting prospect. Allocating resources to a program that misses the mark is damaging to the student, industry and institution. This is especially true in the constantly evolving area of Information Technology. 

Developing skill standards as the foundation of IT program development eliminates the guesswork in curriculum development.  It is a time tested and reliable method of ensuring that programs are current and relevant to industry. Community and technical colleges frequently skip this step, however, because of the time and expense involved.   The new Rapid Development Skill Standards Model short cuts the traditional process.  This tool allows colleges to confidently underwrite IT programs that industry supports.

The bulwark of the Rapid Development Skill Standards Model is the acknowledgement that all industry sectors are infused with information technology.  IT no longer stands alone; it now enables all endeavor. Typically, information technology programs are siloed, stand alone departments in community and technical colleges. Little opportunity or incentive for collaboration with any other department exists.  The need now for colleges to mirror the business community is urgent.  IT has converged with every industry sector in the workplace; necessitating IT integrated programs in community colleges.

This document presents a streamlined process that allow community and technical colleges to rapidly create skill standards within the IT convergence zone.  The framework allows for skills and knowledge from traditionally separate career areas to be easily combined into an integrated educational program.  This model guides users to create skill standards that are easier to read, implement, and translate into curriculum than traditional methods. Examples and context used in this document relate to the Life Science Informatics industry, however community and technical colleges implementing it will benefit from better flexibility in assembling functions, tasks and skills into new and emerging occupation categories. 

This work was funded by a Presidential High Growth Job Training Initiative Grant, implemented by the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. More information: www.workforce3one.org

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