Technology Is Still Hot Item in Workplace

From the Orange County Register — January 1, 2001
By Mary Ann Milbourn

Acquiring or improving skills will place workers in a high-demand area.

Three years ago, Janet Hickey had a good job as a marketing coordinator, but she was bored. She suggested that her company create a Web site. Although Hickey didn't have a lot of background in technology, she found herself in charge of the project, overseeing the consultants hired to design the new Web site.

It was soon up and running, but her company's interest in the Internet waned. "They were just not much into it," she recalled.

Hickey, however, was hooked. She was fascinated by computers and the Internet and wanted to learn more. It was tough going at first.

"At that time, there were not a lot of books on HTML (the computer language for Web pages)," she says. "I kind of had to teach myself."

She eventually came across the digital arts certificate program at the University of California, Irvine, Extension. It was just what the Fullerton resident wanted.

"I had a strong interest in art, but I'm not really an artist, and a strong interest in computers," she says.

She quit her full-time job and jumped in. Two years later she found herself in a whole new career in Web design at Zeek Interactive in Seal Beach. "I am so happy," she says.

While Hickey was just looking for a more interesting career, she was actually on the leading edge of a major change in the workplace that should be on everyone's New Year's resolution list.

Whether it's staying abreast of demands in your current job or trying to get a promotion to a better one or, like Hickey, making a complete change, information-technology training is increasingly becoming the key.

And the Internet is at the heart of technology as businesses begin venturing into everything from Web pages to e-commerce to intranets for staff communication.

The state Employment Development Department estimated last January that nearly 6.5 million new information-technology jobs would be created in California between 199 and 2006 — a 50.6 percent increase.

Local schools are already seeing the demand for training. At California State University, Fullerton, 5,000 students per semester are enrolled in the school's extended education technology certificate programs, said Associate Dean Melody Johnston.

The areas most in demand are Web-application development, Web design and database technologies. They include classes in HTML, Java (the programming used in many applications on the Internet) and ASP (programming that creates dynamic Web pages called Active Server Pages). Web-design classes feature Flash, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop.

Although many of the university's courses are for people upgrading their tech skills, neophytes should not be intimidated. "Don't think you have to know it all," Johnston says, "People who have been doing it for years and years don't know it all."

Experian, the credit-reporting company in Orange, is a good example of the range of learning opportunities. The company partnered with CSUF to create a 15-month part-time certificate program for its IT professionals to upgrade their skills.

But the company also offers its 7,000 employees nationwide more than 200 e-learning courses online on its company intranet. About half are tech courses.

"Each department develops a curriculum they need to get their people job-ready in their career," said Steve Hellman, the director of Experian's Learning Center. "For those who want to take on and do different things, there's a whole list of e-courses they can get certified in." Last year, the e-courses attracted more than 10,000 enrollees, he said.

Despite the efforts of Experian and other companies, the demand for skilled people is still outstripping the supply.

It completely changed Mack Mahmood's business. His company, Tech-Consults.net in Irvine, was set up as a consulting service to help businesses with their technology needs. "But we kept hitting roadblocks," said Mahmood, company president.

The problem? They couldn't find enough trained personnel to do the work.

So this year, the company added a new focus — it is now working with the UC Irvine Extension and other universities to teach a fast-track Java class to meet the burgeoning demand. The classes run three months and can be taken at night and on weekends. Students who successfully complete the classes get certificates, which provide an important entry into the job market.

"The way we've designed tem, we can take people with a very limited knowledge of computers," Mahmood said. "We teach them the fundamentals. We start from scratch."

Right now the company is geared up to handle 90 students every three months.

That's a far cry from just a few years ago when Hickey was teaching herself HTML, but it just proves what she learned. "The jobs are out there," she said.