In today’s economy, many say it is no longer sufficient for graduates seeking employment in information technology fields to possess technical knowledge alone.
As domestic industries move away from the design and production of technological instruments and toward an expanding field of service operations, the Colleges of Management and Engineering have recognized the need for a curriculum that prepares graduates for this growing class of jobs.
“[Companies] are looking for a new generation of experts who are thoroughly grounded in not just information technology, but also in business management,” Steve Allen, associate dean for graduate programs and research at the College of Management, said.
In response, the colleges have worked with IBM to create the Services Sciences, Management and Engineering concentration.
The SSME curriculum will be offered as part of the MBA program in the College of Management and as part of the Master’s of Networking program in the College of Engineering.
Beginning in the fall, students enrolled in this concentration will have the opportunity to take master’s-level courses in business processes, business strategy, information technology and management of people in the workforce, as well as computer science and computer engineering.
Those who enroll in the concentration as part of the MBA program will also have a choice of two tracks — a relationship management and service innovation.
“SSME integrates the service aspects with the technical aspects,” Yannis Viniotis, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, said.
Viniotis, along with associate professors Mihail Devetsikiotis and Harry Perros, have worked to develop the SSME concentration within the Master’s of Networking program. They said they hope to eventually build the curriculum into an independent degree program within the College of Engineering.
According to Devetsikiotis, the concentration emphasizes the development of team, interaction and communication skills along with the core aspects of a traditional engineering education.
“You cannot survive in the services economy unless you are constantly innovating,” Devetsikiotis said.
Viniotis points to the recent job outsourcing phenomenon, in which companies have begun hiring engineers and programmers from foreign countries who work for wages that can be as little as one-fifth of those commanded by domestic engineers.
These changes have caused universities to look for ways to equip their graduates with the skills necessary to avoid having their jobs outsourced, Viniotis said.
“We felt, as educators, that there was a gap in our curriculum and the SSME initiative is our effort to fill in this gap,” Viniotis said.
Companies such as IBM, NetApp, EMC and Nortel played a role in tailoring the curriculum to reflect the realities of the expanding service economy.
“Our researchers have been working very closely with faculty members at N.C. State to develop the program,” Matt Barry, IBM spokesperson, said.
The company believes there is a severe lack of academic disciplines that prepare people for a career in IT and business services, which constitute more than half of all jobs at IBM, Barry said. The initiative is a step toward remedying this void in higher education, he said. “Companies are looking for a strong combination of technical skills with business insight,” Barry said.
Barry said IBM’s motivation for crafting the initiative is two-fold. The company has a strong interest in hiring qualified employees, and since IBM hires more NCSU graduates than any other institution in the country, the University serves as a natural starting place, he said.
Additionally, IBM is committed to preparing the economy to move in a more service-oriented direction, Barry said.
He noted that the move is similar to the efforts made by the company in the 1950s to establish computer science as an academic discipline.
“IBM sees job opportunities, and probably the high-paying jobs, awaiting graduates of such a program,” Barry said.
IBM is also actively encouraging many of its employees to take some of the courses developed specifically for the concentration, Viniotis said.
U.S. Department of Labor statistics show that the service sector is projected to reach 129 million jobs by the year 2014, or four out of every five. Professional and business services are expected to add 4.6 million jobs within the next decade. However, IBM is not the only company that are excited about the possibilities of the new curriculum, Allen said. “There are other organizations that have a keen interest in this program,” Allen said. CISCO Systems, SAS Institute and Accenture are among the companies that may be looking to hire SSME graduates, he said.
