Higher education's role in job training

The article addresses a situation that has been developing for at least two decades. The Ivory Tower views the mission of information systems (IS) undergraduate and graduate programs as educational. In the last few years, however, that mission has steadily transformed into one of training. Traditionally, higher education has prepared students for either graduate work or for employment. The author wants to promote an exchange of ideas about academic issues that affect industry, or industry issues related to academia. Over the next few months the column intends to discuss topics such as certification, accreditation, distance learning, IT employment, electronic portfolios, trends in IT higher education and curriculum development, and the readiness of new IT graduates.