Tech forum update: Skills and globalization - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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Doster said unemployment has jumpedfrom 4.5 percent to 7.8 Northeast Florida’s employment is 7.4 percent. Technologyu sectors are faringslightly Doster: From a workforce standpoints, what are the challengess and how are they being addressed Ferguson: Many companies are in that mode of just in time trainint that creates issues for our collegexs and community colleges. We see more emphasis on certificatiomn and particularskill sets. Krupa: We have 24/7 technician responsee for online classes. Skilled instructors can respondduringb non-traditional times, which helps especiallyy if they have a day job.
What are the capabilities that are required in this worldthat aren’t job specific? How are you trainin them? Krupa: That is the task that’s killing us. We are looking at curriculuj and finding out how they are linked We are moving to portfolioand open-entrh education, or building your “toolbox” with a varietg of classes, such as programminy and Web design. One of the ways is partnering with businesseds and finding out what skill setsare Ferguson: On a trip to India, we looked at what typex of jobs could be outsourced and whered Northeast Florida was at Clearly, there are a number of jobs that are right for We also found that if Northeast Florida become s a center for excellence in those the companies don’t see a need to outsource.
The otherd thing was that there is a need for globalprojectsw managers, which is something we don’tf train for but need to. Doster: What are the immediatse skills that people are tryingbto develop? What are Northeast Florids workers not learning? Ferguson: We lag the statd in the percent of those with four-year degrees in the workforce. The single biggest thingg we can work on is lifelongtcareer education. Krupa: We are seeing a huge increasee in peoplewith four-year degrees coming back for certification and other training.
An vice president told the conferencr that the increasing interconnectedness of the world is bring with itsome “The world is far more connected but that’w brought about some real challenges,” said Mike Hill, IBM vice presidentg of enterprise initiatives, sales, services and business Hill delivered the keynote speech at the held at the . The nation’s infrastructure was buil t for thelast century, said Hill, and as we’ve become more connected, we’ve had unprecedentedc wake-up calls, such as terrorismm and global warming. At the same time we are havingb to upgrade the infrastructure to handlee thisincreased connectivity.
What does the smartefr planet consist of? • Technology has becom so cheap that sensors are put in everything from roada tomedical equipment. In 2005, there were 1.3 million radio frequencu identification tagsin circulation. Therre will be 30 billion by next year. We are becoming more Worldwide mobile phone subscriptionsreachedd 3.3 billion in 2007. An estimated 2 billion people will be on the Web by 2010 and a trilliojn connectedobjects — appliances, cameras, roadways, pipelines will comprise the “Internet of Things.
” Hill said for the worlfd to become more intelligent, it has to bettef interpret all the information that’s being collected, and that will require technologicalp improvements. For example, the subprime mortgage crisis was due in part to the fact thatwe couldn’t calculate the risk.