Kingsborough & CUNY Institute for VE www.ive.cuny.edu

Top Careers

Source:Source: wsj.com, careercast.comwsj.com, careercast.com

Kingsborough & CUNY Institute for VE www.ive.cuny.edu

Soft & Business Skills

Interviewed 13 IT executives from a variety of industries of businesses of a variety of sizes:

“Most of the organizations placed more emphasis on non-technical or soft skills. In almost equal numbers, leadership skills, communication skills, and knowledge of the business were most desired. Communications skills were ranked in the top two required skills in six of ten companies.”

“Non-technical skills – project management, business knowledge, and understanding methodologies – were the most agreed upon areas for improving the preparation of MIS graduates.”

Introduction

Source:Source: Benamati, J. (2007), ACM.orgBenamati, J. (2007), ACM.org

Kingsborough & CUNY Institute for VE www.ive.cuny.edu

Source:Source: Lee, S. M. (2006), ACM.orgLee, S. M. (2006), ACM.org

Soft & Business Skills555 job ads from 201 Fortune 500 companies in 42 states:

Introduction

Kingsborough & CUNY Institute for VE www.ive.cuny.edu

Outward Facing IT Workers

BATEC: Surveyed IT employers in the Massachusetts area Modern IT workers are less often in the backroom and more

frequently “outward facing” -- interacting with other departments and directly with customers.

IT workers are often involved in corporate decisions, especially in firms whose products and services are not IT related (ex. healthcare and finance)

IT skills are akin to using a “fork and knife” – expected. Soft-skills and business knowledge make the difference.

IT skills can be imparted through training, other skills not.

“Real world is unpredictable – soft skills help you cope” – predict, troubleshoot and prevent mistakes.

BATEC (2007). BATEC Information Technology Workforce Skills Study. Boston Area Advanced Technological Education Connections (BATEC) [www.batec.org]

Introduction

Kingsborough & CUNY Institute for VE www.ive.cuny.edu

Soft-Skills in BioTechnology

Kingsborough & CUNY Institute for VE www.ive.cuny.edu

Kingsborough & CUNY Institute for VE www.ive.cuny.edu

Source:Source: Wired, June 2010Wired, June 2010

Kingsborough & CUNY Institute for VE www.ive.cuny.edu

The T-Shaped Technologist

breadth of business operations

depth of technical literacy

Introduction

Science+ Business T-Shaped Tech.

Source:Source: D. Bush (CIO, Intel); SYNERGY ‘04D. Bush (CIO, Intel); SYNERGY ‘04

Kingsborough & CUNY Institute for VE www.ive.cuny.edu

Presentation OutlineVirtual Enterprise (VE):

an in-class business simulation

• Pedagogy: What is Virtual Enterprise?

– Active-learning, in-class simulation pedagogy.

• Human: The Network

– Nation- and World-wide network of firms for events.

• Technology: The Online/Electronic Tools

– Online software tools, eg. bank and virtual economy.