Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You......
....but what can you do for your country?
Here's an idea: join the National Science/Math Advisor Corps (NSMAC).
Ah...what?
A little background first.
Five years ago 3 percent of CIOs said IT labor was hard to find. Today the number approaches 40 percent. There's a huge debate raging in our country on how many undergraduates our education system of 2,600 colleges and universities produce each year. I have been in - and out - of that debate because I often find it a battle of numbers and stats...with each side (those who say our system produces too many degrees and those who say we fall far short) stocked to the gills with stats, data defending their side.
NSMAC is a tack in a different direction....the direction of action rather than debate.
Across America there are 13,500 school districts. An alarming statistic in those districts is this: on average 40 percent, and sometimes more, of teachers of science and math from middle school level through high school do not have undergraduate degrees in those subject areas....and in my opinion as a father of two children who went through public education here in Massacushetts those math and science teachers are doing a damm good job.
But they could use a bit of help....and that's where NSMAC comes in.
NSMAC is an "idea" whose goal is to annually recruit thousands of recent college graduates with science/math/engineering degrees and currently employed tech workers(also with undergraduate degrees in science/math) to serve as science/math advisors to each of those 13,500 school districts.
The term of service for college grads would be two years. For private employers willing to lend/lease a talented employed worker, the term would be one year. Private employer members of NSMAC would continue to receive salary/benefits from their firm and they can decide after one year of service to re-up for an additional year.
As advisors, NSMAC corps members would work for the superindendent of the district. Their key goals would be to review district level curriculum, recommend supplemental programs, organize science/math teacher workshops in the district etc. One hoped for outcome would be a sizable number of NSMAC advisors each year would "opt in" for careers in science/math education to help jumpstart our nation's math/science learning.
The key provision of this post is you......what's your initial reaction to the idea? If there were such a program like NSMAC, and your company supported it, would you be willing to serve? If yes, share your reasons. If not, why not?
Post your top of mind comments to this blog. Spread the word of NSMAC to as many of your friends and other sites as you can. If interested, email me (gbeach@cio.com) or call me direct (508 935 4202). I would much enjoy carrying this conversation and idea forward.
Collectively I believe there is alot our industry can "do for our country".
Post your comment, spread the word....call/write me with your ideas.
Previous Post: Numbers Mean Nuthin....It's People That CountNext Post: Hot Jobs in America Thru 2016
What is Tech Briefcase?
TechBriefcase is a new, free service where IT Professionals can Search, Store and Share IT white papers and content like this. Learn more
Bookmark content
Speed up your research efforts with content across the web.
Search and Store
Find the white papers you need. Create folders for any topic.
View Anywhere
Open your briefcase on your iPhone, tablet or desktop. Share with colleagues.
Most Discussed Posts
Cloud computing has emerged as one of the most significant game changers to hit the technology landscape in the past 20 years. With this massive expansion of the cloud, the perception of the IT organization is shifting from a utility player to a change agent. This eBook breaks down five ways progressive organizations are using cloud-based IT Management solutions to help drive innovation and become more strategic, including: adding visibility and analytics, speeding up time-to-value, lowering costs, improving prioritization, and providing a blueprint for future cloud deployments.
Read the white paper to see how IBM helped Citigroup deliver new services and enhancements to their 200 million customers faster.
There are 3 ways to modernize legacy applications: rewrite completely, acquire packaged solutions or migrate existing code. This paper explains why it's best to migrate and how IBM® Rational® software can help.
Accommodating specific lines of business can result in a hybrid ecosystem of applications and servers. The resulting complexity of this architecture makes for an environment that is costly to maintain and difficult to change when addressing new challenges.
This whitepaper will help you to define a mobile device passcode policy. Security managers must attempt to reconcile two opposing goals. They must: 1) create a passcode policy that is strong enough to protect the device if it is lost or stolen, while: 2) not annoying users with needless length or complexity.
This whitepaper, authored by The Radicati Group, looks at the key reasons organizations should consider moving to a cloud-based archiving solution. Email archiving solutions enable organizations to store, monitor, and collect electronic data exchanged by their users to comply with internal policies and regulations.
ATERNITY will showcase a 30-minute demo on how Fortune 500 companies are leveraging its award-winning FPI Platform to deliver a user-centric approach to Proactive IT Management.
For businesses to move forward and tap into the ever-expanding universe of Internet users and network-enabled devices, it's critical to learn how to make the transition to IPv6. Learn the critical steps your organization must take to make a seamless transition-and keep your business world connected.
Learn how IT teams can protect against spear phishing tactics. Harry Sverdlove, chief technology officer of Bit9 offers a frank discussion about spear phishing - the most common technique used in today's advanced attacks.
Learn how to build a solid business case for your migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux so you can run leaner, innovate faster, be more flexible and own the New Now.
Social media isn't about you; it's about everything around you. As you consider how your customers want to communicate with you, social media is something that can't be ignored. But what should your strategy be? Is social media "just another channel?" What kind of a plan makes sense for your contact center and for your customers? Join our experts as they share their insight and research results.
Hardware tokens were a popular method of strong authentication in past years but the cumbersome provisioning and distribution tasks, high support requirements and replacement costs have limited their growth. The additional log-in steps that hardware tokens require and the resulting user frustrations have limited adoption and make them impractical for larger scale partner and customer applications.
Sponsored Links
