"Preparing Women and Minorities for the IT Workforce: The Role of Nontraditional Educational Pathways"

A new AAAS study on women and IT:

"This study examines the role of nontraditional educational pathways in preparing women and underrepresented minorities for the information technology (IT) workforce. It was sparked by the finding that the nation's number one producer of bachelor's degrees in information technology and computer science (IT/CS) was not a major research university, but instead was Strayer University, a for-profit institution with many campuses in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. Not only was Strayer the top producer overall, but it also produced the largest number of women and African-American graduates with baccalaureates in IT/CS."

This report is also discussed at msnbc.com.

"Programming Jobs Losing Luster in U.S."

According to an article by AP:

"U.S. graduates probably shouldn't think of computer programming or chemical engineering as long-term careers but it's "not all gloom and doom," said Albert C. Gray, executive director of the National Society of Professional Engineers. He says prospects are good for aeronautic, civil and biomedical engineers, the people who design and build artificial organs, life support devices and machines to nurture premature infants."

"The U.S. software industry lost 16 percent of its jobs from March 2001 to March 2004, the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute found. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that information technology industries laid off more than 7,000 American workers in the first quarter of 2005."

"The research firm Gartner Inc. predicts that up to 15 percent of tech workers will drop out of the profession by 2010, not including those who retire or die. Most will leave because they can't get jobs or can get more money or job satisfaction elsewhere. Within the same period, worldwide demand for technology developers — a job category ranging from programmers people who maintain everything from mainframes to employee laptops — is forecast to shrink by 30 percent."

Computer Science woes in Australia, too

The Wired Campus reports that "several of Australia's colleges, concerned about the nation's decreasing numbers of technology majors, are giving pink slips to computer-science professors. Monash University has laid off 22 information-technology staff members in the past year, and last week Bond University quietly axed its entire technology faculty. Officials at Bond say they hope to re-energize their technology program by folding it into the university's business department." Among the reasons given are: parents influencing students to pick more marketable disciplines, time lag between job prospects and enrollments, concerns over job security, academics [who] do not understand business concerns, more advanced [computer program] development environments, offshoring, students wanting more business content, popularity of games design. (The Australian)