@scottalanmiller said in How Do Such Big Gaps Get Missed in IT Education:
@scotth said in How Do Such Big Gaps Get Missed in IT Education:
@scottalanmiller said in How Do Such Big Gaps Get Missed in IT Education:
@scotth said in How Do Such Big Gaps Get Missed in IT Education:
I, by no means am an expert in IT, but I've found that after many years and many issues, that I wonder if it's possible to develop a 'feeling' for systems rather than needing to constantly needing to Google log messages. I catch myself constantly deciding that something doesn't 'feel right' even though the issue isn't glaringly obvious.
I agree there. In software circles it's called "smell". After 28 years in IT, one of the reasons that people bring me in for troubleshooting is that I can often "feel" a system and sense what is wrong long before people can dig through logs or whatever and I know when to say "I know this sounds crazy, but this almost impossible thing... I'm sure that that is what happened."
But that doesn't help for someone who, for example, has never even heard of virtualization. That's a pure gap. He can't be faulted for not "sensing the lack of it" when he was unaware someone had made it. Now how he never heard of it, that's what worries me. What sources and articles and groups and people is he dealing with that never talk about or mention it?
So "I'm not crazy -- and my mother 'didn't' have me tested :).
I can't imagine that especially trade schools or community colleges wouldn't take the approach of creating a lab and moving to hands on as most of the course. Hell, even basic electricity courses make a dummy wall and have the students wire up outlets.
Trade schools aren't considered valid for IT, though. Not at this point. That leaves some big gaps and problems as there isn't an existing, professional trade process for getting into IT.
I'd argue that depending on the school. I went to a 2 year tech school in a program called "computer and network system administration." It was very hands on, where we had about 70% lab work and 30% classroom. Our schedule was from 730 am until about 1 pm if I remember correctly. It taught the basics of how hard drives work, how to format etc, to windows and Linux administration ( Redhat focused) to network basics and the tcp/ip stack. Then on to more advanced networking concepts. That was year 1. Then more of the same in year 2 but with added topics. In my opinion, it was money well spent.
However, I cannot say the same for another tech school right down the road. It was terrible from what I heard and graduates barely knew basic concepts upon graduation. So I think it really depends on the school and instructors at that school.
With that being said, about 4 years later, after working full time, I went back to school in the evening to get my bachelors degree in "IT management". (Paid for by my employer at the time). That program was an absolute joke in regards to actual hands on work.
