![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-ap-v2i.applyflow.com\/geosearch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/bootcamp-image-2-300x200-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe growing dissatisfaction of college graduates. Source McGraw Hill Education Workforce Readiness survey.<\/p>\n
The pandemic has jolted the educational paradigm and there are some overdue changes being wrestled with to meet student needs. Every single administrator in every single school has had to think about how content deliveries will be made in our isolated states. I\u2019ve consumed many educational articles, webinars, and panel discussions and see a scramble to offer teaching under plan A, B, and C depending on the severity of the pandemic. People are weighing in with advice on financials, logistics, and content. But in the majority of these discussions, I find that students are the least consulted group. Although I\u2019ve been an Esri Business Partner for 23 years, I have also been intimately involved in the EdTech community and wanted to bring into focus what the new GIS learner wants.<\/p>\n
A technical industry HR problem
\n<\/b>
\nLet\u2019s start with a major pain point that technical companies have. By and large we can lump GIS into the IT industry with a variety of computing based roles. Code.org reports that 67% of all new jobs require computing skills yet only 11% of college graduates have a degree in an IT related field. If you are in a hiring position in any technical field in the US, this is a well known problem. I have interviewed about 50 GIS managers and every single one of them finds it difficult to hire someone with the mix of IT and Geography skills to help support a map system rather than just making a map. In various industries, it\u2019s known as the \u2018skills gap\u2019. Graduating seniors possess skills X, but human resources staff are hiring skills Y. It\u2019s of national interest to decrease this gap and many companies in the EdTech sector are working to address this.<\/p>\n
Who teaches the GIS technology?
\n<\/b>
\nNot only are there less graduates with technical degrees, but the skills they possess are limited. In most academic environments it can be tough to learn the latest technical applications. A primary reason is that technology evolves really quickly so it\u2019s impractical to expect the broad spectrum of professors to keep up. So they bring you very nicely. Google, Apple, and IBM know this and no longer require a degree to hire people in their technical departments because they can\u2019t wait around for the college graduate who ends up needing an immense amount of on-the-job training. The pandemic has forced families to look to new sources of education and make more decisions about how they will learn beyond the 4 walls of a classroom.<\/p>\n
What is the new GIS student looking for
\n<\/b>
\nA survey by College Pulse says 6 in 10 college students say that the credential <\/b>was one of the most important reasons they are in college. Yes, having a certifying body say you stuck it out and got your degree is a good thing. Students want real experiences<\/b>. This is why everyone\u2019s study abroad semester is rated as their favorite semester in college. And internships are deemed so valuable. Students like peer-2-peer<\/b> learning. We have always learned more outside of class than in class. After you get some professor inspiration, you learn and teach others in your peer group projects. And finally, students like real-time access. The best tools in the world for learning are Google and YouTube. Show me the 5min video that teaches me how to replace my car\u2019s dead headlamp rather than giving me a semester in car mechanics like I took in high school. I would say that most of us have valued these characteristics no matter when you graduated. But the key difference is that the new GIS student has options outside of a stovepipe education where you typically accept the institution, tuition, and whatever professor that walks in the door of their classroom.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Students figuring out a bootstrapped path to the technical skills they need.<\/p>\n
What are your learning options?
\n<\/b> If you ask around, you\u2019ll find that not everyone starts out with a computer science or GIS science degree. I know that an equal number of my colleagues got degrees in other areas and then found their way to some GIS training that got them interested in our field. This accidental discovery has created an eclectic audience that makes up the GIS community. So let\u2019s examine your options to prepare yourself for many good jobs in GIS.<\/p>\n
1 The Geography degree
\nGIS is a multibillion-dollar industry that has driven the growth of geography programs all around the country in 4-year universities. Yes, it\u2019s a marketable field. And yes, degrees show you how to think in an open-ended fashion about lots of things. But it\u2019s possible you got a degree in another discipline and a single class is not enough so you look for more.<\/p>\n
2 The GIS Certificate
\nThe certificate is a more focused dive into GIS. Forget about all non-GIS courses so you can get working faster. At community colleges, you\u2019ll find courses are commonly taught by adjuncts that do have experience in the industry which is a good thing. The curriculums are pretty standard with classes in Intro to GIS, Cartographic Methods, and Spatial Analysis. They get you in the game but maybe not on top of the game as these provide a foundation rather than higher-level marketability. I authored a 20 chapter class on Applied Cartographic Concepts, but I wouldn\u2019t advise any of my new students wanting to be more marketable to take my class.<\/p>\n
3 Microcredentials Isn\u2019t that a cool idea to have the power to \u2018build your own degree in GIS\u2019<\/a>. We know that the new GIS student lives the \u2018Spotified\u2019 life every day choosing which music, news, and food they consume with precision. I foresee many students making their way successfully and free of debt in this same manner if they deviate from the typical college path which is like a vinyl record where you are forced to pay for the entire album and get 2 good songs and 8 so-so songs that you want to skip. I\u2019m confident that industry needs, financial forces, and EdTech innovations are going to offer some efficient pathways into our industry so that students can walk past the vinyl.<\/p>\n Andres Abeyta is Executive Director of Bootcamp GIS-based in San Diego, CA<\/i>. For 23 years, he has been the leading curriculum developer, eLearning architect, and GIS instructor for most of the Federal agencies in the US. He has been traveling the world presenting new ideas as part of selective EdTech innovation programs. He has co-authored a new upper-tier course list, View Course List<\/a>, that represents an array of thought leadership from around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The growing dissatisfaction of college graduates. Source McGraw Hill Education Workforce Readiness survey. The pandemic has jolted the educational paradigm and there are some overdue changes being wrestled with to meet student needs. Every single administrator in every single school has had to think about how content deliveries will be made in our isolated states.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-spotlights"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18970,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16776\/revisions\/18970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/16780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe outcome of the pandemic is that more schools will look for ways to partner with industry talent to offer micro-credentials to complement their degree. This is the best combination. You\u2019ll \u2018Spotify\u2019 your education by making your own playlist of places to learn from. You might get a web architect certification on AWS<\/a> to learn cloud. You might take the specialty certification tests from ESRI <\/a>on things like AGOL, Python, or Utility Network. Or you might go to Bootcamp GIS<\/a> to practice mirrored skills with high-level industry practitioners that use GIS in a real project. There you can buy an individual course or several to build your own online GIS certificate. Then I suggest joining some LinkedIn groups and local GIS groups to network with people. Together, this is a recipe for success.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-ap-v2i.applyflow.com\/geosearch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/bootcamp-image-3-300x233-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n