BCC unit receives $228,000 National Science Foundation grant to update international information technology skill standards

BELLEVUE, WASH.– The National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET), a part of Bellevue Community College, has received a grant of $228,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to update the NWCET’s internationally recognized information technology skill standards.

Skill standards identify the knowledge and abilities needed to succeed in specific occupations. They are used by industry to establish hiring and professional development guidelines and by educators to develop curriculum matched to workplace requirements.

The NWCET is an NSF Advanced Technology Education Center of Excellence in the field of information technology (IT) and a recognized, national leader in the research, development and dissemination of IT skill standards.

“We need to revise our existing skill standards to recognize a recent, fundamental shift in IT employment,” said NWCET Director Eva Philpot. “The trend today is for IT jobs to be distributed across industry sectors such as finance, healthcare and energy. As a result, nearly 80 percent of IT occupations in the US are now found in non-IT industries, where IT workers need not only technical skills but also extensive business knowledge. We will reflect this changing environment in our new skill standards,” Philpot said.

The skill standards project also has received additional funding from Microsoft Corporation, IEEE technology advancement association and InfoBasis, a provider of skills management technologies.

The mission of the NWCET is to lead education, business and government in addressing the information technology needs of today’s workforce. The NWCET has developed internationally recognized IT skill standards to guide technical education and, through its Educator-to-Educator Institute, provides educators at all levels with professional development in the area of information technology. In its ten-year history, the NWCET has reached thousands of IT users, professionals, teachers and employers across the nation and internationally.

http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/venture/ or contact Cynthia Johnson at cjohnson@bcc.ctc.edu.

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