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College Try
And wasn't there a program started by SIM and Microsoft a couple of years ago in which IT executives and Microsoft personnel would reach out and talk to college students about IT careers and the IT job market?
The SIM Foundation has actually taken that over. The program continues. It's focused on helping university students make good decisions. And our fundraising campaign will allow us to expand the program.
Do you keep metrics on these programs? Do you know if you're having any success?
With the Teen Tech Challenge program, the second year they ran it, their biggest problem was kids sneaking into it without making a reservation. So it's gotten a lot of attraction in the cities we've run it.
In the other program, the universities that we've talked to after we've been there have said that their enrollment problems seemed to be subsiding. Enrollment seemed to be up.
Now, whether it's due to our program or other efforts by the university—it's hard to tell, but we've had good compliments from the universities we've been to.
And this brings up another interesting problem facing CIOs. Not only do they need to worry about making sure the talent pipeline is primed, they need to figure out how to hold on to the staff they have. What are some of the things CIOs can do to retain their staffs? What are the best practices?
People have to be given responsibility. They need to be able to put something under their belt and run with it. And they also need to have fun with their job. It can't just be drudgery. And you've got to experiment—experiment with people trying different things in and outside of IT.
There's a technique that some CIOs use called virtual job rotations. Staff members retain their existing job, but they take on some particular task outside of their comfort zone. They're challenged.
I'm finding that with the younger people I talk to, they need to have variety. They're used to multitasking—probably more so than you and I were. When I first started my career, multitasking was unheard of. You were focused. You had one job to do and you did it.
But with the technology that these kids have, doing two or three things at the same time is pretty normal.
When they're put in a single task environment, it just doesn't work. So you've got to make sure they've got something interesting to do and that they're kept constantly challenged.
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