This lengthy report is intended as a reference for diverse stakeholder efforts to improve essential ICT education and workforce development efforts in the Bay Area.
In particular, it includes eye-opening ICT industry and employment data, ICT public higher education delivery capacity information, and ideas for regional strategies and activities that may assist grant proposals and projects to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of community colleges in meeting the many diverse and quickly evolving demands of this extremely important cluster.
While data in this report is specific to the Bay Area, conclusions, issues and opportunities are relevant to other regions in California, and to Nevada, Hawaii, the Pacific Territories and elsewhere.
Executive Summary:
21st century economies are increasingly driven by information and communication technologies (ICT).
In this report, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) is used as a superset or umbrella term, encompassing all rapidly emerging, evolving, and converging computer, software, networking, telecommunications, Internet, programming, information systems and digital media technologies. ICT is a comprehensive framework for organizing these inter-related, interdependent, and rapidly changing technologies and high-tech fields - and for organizing the ICT workforce, which spans across organizations of all sizes - in all industries. The ICT term and framework are widely used outside the U.S., by institutions including the United Nations, European Union, World Bank, and International Telecommunications Union.
Until recently, this aggregated approach has not been often used in the U.S., leading ICT to receive less strategic attention from policy makers and planners. ICT is particularly important in the greater San Francisco Bay Area economy, as the data in this report shows.
ICT Industries
ICT industries, which create, market and deliver ICT related goods and services, are likely the largest and most important industry cluster in the greater San Francisco Bay region. In 2012, they accounted for:
- 16,360 establishments, 8.7% of the total number of firms in the Bay Area
- 411,335 employees, 10.2% of total industry employment in the SF Bay Area, > 1 in 10 jobs
- 7.3% employment growth, 32,455 net new jobs, between 2012 and 2015,
- 17.2% of the overall employment growth expected for all industry employment in the Bay Area.
- >$230 billion in sales revenue, nearly 20% of total regional sales revenue for all industries.
- >$86.3 billion in earnings, nearly 23% of total regional earnings for all industries.
ICT Occupations
However, ICT Workforce doesn’t just work for ICT industry employers. ICT Workforce is now strategically essential to most organizations, across all industry sectors, because that ICT workforce enables increasing productivity from all workforce and many strategic efforts of all business functions. ICT Workforce demand in the Bay Area is large and growing. In 2012, ICT Workforce in the Bay Area accounted for:
- 333,229 people employed, 8.3% of all Bay Area employees (about 1 in 12 jobs)
- Median annual salaries of about $90,000
- 20,297 net job growth (6.1%)
- 21,178 total replacement jobs
- 43,054 total job openings (8.2% of all job openings)
- 14,354 average annual job openings
CCC ICT Education and Workforce Development Supply:
California community colleges (CCCs) are among the most efficient vehicles for cost-effectively pushing needed ICT knowledge and skills out into our society. The 28 colleges in the Bay Area Community College Consortium (BACCC) have rich ICT-related resources, faculty, curriculum and credentials. In 2010/11:
- 81 departments
- 1,350 faculty
- 140,000 for-credit and 16,000 non-credit enrollments
- 180 Associate Degrees
- 405 Academic Certificates
- 7,398 sections of 2,366 courses
- 17,784 full-time equivalent students
- Strong Vendor Neutral and Industry Academy Programs and Certification Test Preparation
- Service to all Bay Area geographic areas
- Affinity to local K-12 systems and schools
- Affinity to 4-year colleges and universities
There are 10 public universities in the greater Bay Area. Nine have 32 ICT related departments with a wide variety of bachelor, master, doctoral and research opportunities. Generally, these are not well articulated with community colleges, especially in hands-on Career Technical Education pathways.
Regional Efforts to Improve ICT Education and Workforce Development
Historically, college offerings have been developed and delivered locally, with little regional coordination. However, today there is a new strategic emphasis and plan to bring those colleges together to better address ICT sector needs. The CCC “Doing What Matters for Jobs and the Economy” campaign includes one dedicated Statewide ICT Sector Navigator and two dedicated Bay Area region ICT Deputy Sector Navigator positions devoted to those efforts. These are exciting developments.
There are many ways the diverse stakeholders to a thriving ICT industry and employment sector in the greater Bay Area can join and work together to improve ICT economic and workforce development. The 4th section of this report includes many suggestions, but there are certainly many others. Appendices to this report provide detailed data to inform grant and project proposals and work.
21st century economies and workforce are different from 20th century economies and workforce. Let’s wake up to and embrace these new realities, recognizing our strengths in the Bay Area around ICT, and organize ourselves and our efforts around making that work even better!
We need to be able to grow the ICT Workforce needed by Bay Area ICT industries and ICT Workforce employers here in the Bay Area, for the benefit of our local economies, communities and citizens, rather than import our ICT Workforce and risk driving our local citizens out of the Bay Area region. Let’s get together and do that!
Download and use the report.
No comments:
Post a Comment