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On Romanian Experiences Related to Universities and ICT Industry

On Romanian Experiences Related to Universities and ICT Industry. Vasile BALTAC and Dan Mihalca ATIC- The Information Technology and Communications Association of Romania. 2nd IT STAR Workshop Universities and ICT Industry Genzano, 26 May 2007. Member EU accession since 1 January 2007

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On Romanian Experiences Related to Universities and ICT Industry

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  1. On Romanian Experiences Related to Universities and ICT Industry Vasile BALTAC and Dan Mihalca ATIC- The Information Technology and Communications Association of Romania 2nd IT STAR Workshop Universities and ICT Industry Genzano, 26 May 2007

  2. Member EU accession since 1 January 2007 Rate of growth of GDP remarkable in the last 5 years Stable exchange rate One digit inflation The labour force - 9.3 M low unemployment - 5.5% 3-4 M people work abroad Local investments and FDI Chart GDP Romania 2001-2006 ROMANIA: Economy

  3. First country in Easter Europe to build computers: CIFA-1957, MECIPT–1961, and DACICC-1962 Industrial base built in the 1970s Licenses: CII-France, Friden-Holland, Ampex, Memorex, Control Data–USA, etc. research, manufacturing, service, trade and data processing organizations 1980s a 40.000 people workforce Minicomputers “Made in Romania” exported Czechoslovakia, East Germany, China, Middle East countries and other markets Technologies became obsolete in the period 1980-1989 due to lack of investments in hard currencies ROMANIA ICT: deep roots in the past

  4. All world major ICT companies present in Romania Romanian ICT best assets human resources a quickly developing market. Romanian education system largely recognized as on of the best in the world of ICT 5.000 new graduates enter the labour market every year Brainbench Co. puts Romania first based on the number of skilled programmers in Europe 8.000+ software and IT services companies in Romania a process of acquisitions & mergers entry in EU will probably accelerate this process Many multinationals started create R&D, production or service centres in Romania Various reports appraise eReadiness of Romania IT accessibility, affordability, digital literacy and content availability yet not completely adequate ICT in Romania 1990-2006

  5. High rate of all IT sectors 2003-2005 continuing 2006-2009 Chart Romanian IT Industry 2000 - 2009 IT Industry Romania: 2003-2009

  6. The communication market: similar evolution 3G and iMode present Chart Romanian Communications 2001-2009 Communications Industry

  7. Chart ICT Diffusion Index 2004 Source: UNCTAD ICT Diffusion Index

  8. Chart ICT Diffusion Rank 1998 – 2004 Source: UNCTAD ICT Diffusion Rank 1998 - 2004

  9. Universities in Romania • Extensive network -116 universities • both public and private • accredited by a special body belonging to the Ministry of Education • failure of accreditation – dissolved • University network cover all major cities of Romania • Total 116 • Public Universities 56 • Private University with accreditation 32 • Private University with temporary accreditation 28

  10. Universities with ICT specializations • ICT studies - a long time established reputation • First graduates of computer engineering • Politechnica University of Timisoara in 1966 • Politechnica University of Bucharest in 1967 • University of Bucharest and Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest followed quickly • Before 1989 list completed by universities or technical universities in Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Craiova

  11. Universities with ICT specializations • 46 specializations in four categories: • Computer, telecommunications and electronic engineering (graduation in engineering) - 9 • Informatics (graduation in economics) - 14 • Accounting informatics (graduation in economics) - 11 • Informatics (graduation in mathematics) – 12 • The 46 ICT specializations in 36 universities • 20 of them have one or two faculties of ICT profile. • All located in cities with tradition in the field and good educators

  12. ICT Work Force • Every year 5,000+ graduates • Theoretical and practical skills • Romania - 13th place in the world as number of IT graduates • On per capita base Romania has more IT graduates than the United States, Russia, India or China • Excellent language skills • 80% of the IT work force speaks English, • 25% speaks French and • 11-12% speaks German including native speakers • Brainbench IT vendor certifier • Romania - the fifth in the world after India, the United States, Russia and Ukraine as total number of IT certified individuals • Same place as percentage of the population

  13. Use of ICT Work Force • 1990-2000 - a serious exodus of the IT experts • mostly to North America and Western Europe • After 2000 the trend stopped • Emigration from 90% to 40-50% • ICT multinationals open have centres in Romania • software, ICT applications and support • Alcatel, Siemens, Solectron, Oracle, HP, IBM, Infineon, Huawei, Adobe Systems, Microsoft, SAP and many others • Salary increases vs. high quality of individuals • Romania consolidates its status of near-shoring country • majority of graduates now to stay in the country

  14. Use of ICT Work Force • ICT industry - a HR demanding industry • Large R&D ICT centres for export • High rate of growth of demand for domestic ICT companies and IT departments • A pressure on the specific HR market • quantity, mainly for several specializations • quality and experience • Non – IT graduates after retraining programmes join the industry • software programmers, network administrators, project managers • Estimated number 2,500-3,000 per year

  15. ATIC Survey • Assessment • expectations of the ICT industry from universities • expectations of the universities from the industry • Questionnaire: • Number of IT professionals needed annually in Romania in the next 3 years, by type of activity • The distribution of demand by programmers, analysts, system architects, data base administrators, security experts, salespeople, CEO/CTO, etc. • Estimation of losses by emigration and choice of different career path. • Opinion on the present university offer, quantitative and qualitative • Opinion on the present curricula • Specializations in critical demand

  16. ICT Industry Expectations • General opinion - favourable to universities • ICT Graduates give satisfaction to employers • The relative high percentage of non-ICT graduates in the workforce proves also the good training of engineering, economics and mathematics education • the largest part of these non-ICT graduates come from • Improvements sought by the industry in the education system • education of professionals • education at the level of basic knowledge to use ICT

  17. Education of ICT Professionals • Respondents could not agree on the number of graduates universities that satisfy the needs of the ICT industry • Opinions varied from 5,000-10,000 each year for the next 3 years • Losses by expatriation evaluated at 10-40%, with 1-5% losses to non-ICT jobs • Authors’ evaluation of need new entries to ICT HR market • 9,000-10,000 each year • ICT graduates - 90% • Distribution of job profiles of the new entries: • Software programmers 30-60% • System analysts 10-30% • System architects 2-10% • Administrators of data bases, application, services 7-15% • Applications security experts 2-10% • Product, application, services sales 10-20% • CEO/CTO 1-5% • Similar estimations were made by respondents from universities.

  18. Education of ICT Professionals • Specialities claimed to be missing or insufficient covered • telecom network topologies, data base administration, UNIX, software testing and integration, C++, IT Storage Manager, IT Asset Manager, Information Services Manager, mobile devices programming, project management. • One opinion stated that the present list of job types in ICT is completely outdated • Universities asked to cover specific demand • Master degrees and/or other post-graduates courses • Partnerships with foreign universities considered a solution

  19. Education of ICT Professionals: Curricula • Universities asked to update annually their ICT curricula • The present curricula are judged as obsolete, not adapted to the new trends in ICT industry • A major consideration: universities insist too much on the theoretical training and tend to produce super-skilled graduates • The industry needs a small number of such people • the rest being too highly skilled become unsatisfied with routine work, predominant in many companies • Universities should produce normal skilled people; the super-skilled should be trained by post-graduate programs • The Bologna process started may solve this problem, but still it is on the table

  20. Basic Knowledge to use ICT • ICT industry counts on education system, also to prepare the people to use IT applications, i.e. to have the basic knowledge to use ICT • ICT is not anymore a product or service for an elite • eEurope states “Information Society is for all”. • ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) • Licensee in Romania is ATIC (IT&C Association of Romania) ECDL Romania is in charge with all ECDL activities • Results so far are encouraging • 75,000+ skill cards issued • 35,000 licenses granted • Universities responded with enthusiasm • 35 accredited ECDL test centres in Romanian universities • Several universities adapted IT curricula to ECDL and accept ECDL as a proof of practical ICT abilities • One university asks for ECDL license before graduation

  21. Basic Knowledge to use ICT • Case study shows the impact of non-basic ICT training • Survey conducted on a group of post-graduate students in management • all of them graduates of non-ICT faculties • asked to answer by “I know and I can explain to others”, “I may know” or “I do not know” to 40 basic words or syntagms related to ICT. • terms common or used currently by the non-IT media or advertisers

  22. Chart Basic Knowledge to use ICT: Case Study

  23. Chart Basic Knowledge to use ICT: Case Study

  24. Chart Basic Knowledge to use ICT: Case Study

  25. Chart Basic Knowledge to use ICT: Case Study

  26. Basic Knowledge to use ICT: Case Study • Effort is still to be made • to improve the ICT infrastructure in schools and universities • to train the “trainers” • The case study emphasizes the need to: • Generalize in all universities and high schools ICT curricula that bring next generation at an appropriate level to have all benefits of Information Society • Renew ECDL and other general basic ICT skills curricula at short intervals

  27. Universities Expectations • Universities need industry support as the infrastructure they possess is not easily kept up-to-dated • The answer of the industry was positive and not only universities are sponsored with hardware, software, applications and know-how, but a • New form of partnership emerged: partnerships IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, Alcatel and others. • Overall good impact on the training of students • produced a certain polarisation of ICT faculties, a few of them becoming • Leaders with the best points in HR recruitment: • University Politechnica Bucharest for system support • University of Iasi for application software • Academy of Economic Sciences Bucharest for banking applications, ERP and data bases • University Politechnica Timisoara for system applications. • These universities are responsible for 40-50% of graduates each year. • Within university environment there is still a reminiscence of the old concept of high level training for everybody • Professors criticize the fact that good students are hired by companies during their 2-3rd grades • neglect theoretical education and not any more motivated for a scientific career. • New Bologna type scheme (3+2+3) does not produce the best results yet • The first 3 years are filled with many courses repeating high school topics and student are not given the specialization skills required by the industry, with dissatisfaction on both sides.

  28. Curricula • Universities claim to have adopted their curricula 75-100% to the requirements of the Bologna recommendations • Most consider revisions to be made at the end of cycles (3+2+3) • Others consider a revision every year • Most important issue related to curricula is the industry demand which is not clearly defined: • large companies require narrow specialized graduates to produce immediately results, • smaller companies and the IT departments in non-IT organizations want a broad specialization to solve a variety of task with the same person. • It seems that this problem is not particular to Romania

  29. ATIC - A Bridge to Romania • The Association for Information Technology and Communications of Romania (ATIC) • organization aiming to consolidate an appropriate framework for the development of IT&C in Romania • maintains a database for co-operation projects available to members • disseminates information to non-members • Member of WITSA (World Information Technology Software Alliance); CEPIS (Council of European Professional Informatics Societies) and IT STAR • http://www.atic.org.ro • President Dr. Vasile Baltac • Contact: officeATIC@atic.org.ro

  30. Thank You!!Q&A?

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