Summarising Industry’s Needs To summarise, ICT graduates need a solid foundation in technical skills from both the engineering and informatics cultures, with a particular emphasis on a broad systems perspective. They need training in team working, with real experience of team projects where several activities are undertaken in parallel. They need a basic understanding of economics, market and business issues too.
In addition, ICT graduates need to have good personal skills such as problem solving abilities, communication and persuasion skills, awareness of the need for life long learning, readiness to understand fully the needs of the customer and their project colleagues, and awareness of cultural differences when acting in a global environment.
In other words, they need qualifications, which enable them to work in the activity areas described in the ICT Consortium's Career Space core generic skills profiles for the ICT Industry in Europe (www.career-space.com).
At the start of the 21st century the need for such graduates in the ICT industry is rapidly increasing.
Are the European universities and other institutions ready to respond to this need?
Are their ICT curricula designed for the needs of the 21st century?
Will they give solid foundations for graduates to become effective leaders and innovators in the ICT industry?
These are the key challenges the Career Space ICT Consortium puts to European universities.
