Abstract
Background and purpose: In the age of globalization, Thailand is one of many countries in which most industries require large numbers of IT workers. However, there is today a significant shortage of IT-competent workers in many industries, particularly among the digital/IT industries and the reasons for the shortfall need to be explored. Therefore, the research described examines the critical factors affecting the development of the IT workforce to meet industry requirements through work integrated learning (WIL) programs and proposes a four-stage model to assist future workers to reach the standards necessary for IT careers.
Design/method/approach: The research employed a qualitative approach to answer the research questions and collected data in semi-structured interviews. The population was divided into two groups: private companies and government organizations in Thailand and IT students. The interviews were transcribed and the content was analyzed using content analysis by coding themes and categories.
Results/anticipated outcome: Several factors influence the development of the IT workforce. The main issues include people’s readiness to learn, their essential skills, the knowledge needed at work, the working environment, proper training methods, and IT career advancement.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that those involved in higher education should recognize the issues that influence the development of the IT workforce. Various aspects were identified by both the representatives of the organization and the future IT workers interviewed which were relevant to the planning of education policy. However, the study’s results are limited by being restricted to the perceptions of the participants who were either from the IT industry or were internship students. The range of the groups studied may need to be considered in future studies to broaden the perspectives considered.
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Appendices
Appendices
Appendix A: Demographic of Organizations
Participant | Position | Industry type | IT experience (year) | Mentoring experience (year) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
P1 | IT Manager | Tourism | 10 | Yes (>5) |
P2 | Founder | Technology, ICT | 20 | Yes (>5) |
P3 | IT Manager | Technology, ICT | 17 | Yes (>5) |
P4 | IT Manager | Technology, ICT | 20 | Yes (>5) |
P5 | IT manager | Technology, ICT | 8 | Yes (>5) |
P6 | IT Manager/Founder | Technology, ICT | 15 | Yes (>5) |
P7 | IT Project Manager | Technology, ICT | 20 | Yes (>5) |
P8 | IT Specialist | Technology, ICT | 18 | Yes (>5) |
P9 | IT Specialist | Technology, ICT | 18 | Yes (>5) |
P10 | IT Technical and Sale Engineer | Technology, ICT | 17 | Yes (>5) |
P11 | Project Manager | Technology, ICT | 12 | Yes (>5) |
P12 | Sale Manager | Technology, ICT | 15 | Yes (>5) |
P13 | Senior Graphic Designer | Technology, ICT | 12 | Yes (>5) |
P14 | Senior Graphic Designer | Technology, ICT | 15 | Yes (>5) |
P15 | Senior Programmer | Technology, ICT | 10 | Yes (>5) |
P16 | Senior Programmer | Technology, ICT | 5 | Yes (>3) |
P17 | Senior Programmer | Technology, ICT | 5 | Yes (>3) |
P18 | Senior System Administrator | Technology, ICT | 17 | Yes (>5) |
P19 | Senior System Analyst | Technology, ICT | 10 | Yes (>5) |
P20 | Senior System Analyst | Technology, ICT | 20 | Yes (>5) |
P21 | System Engineer | Technology, ICT | 10 | Yes (>5) |
P22 | Senior System Administrator | Resources, Energy | 17 | Yes (>5) |
P23 | IT Manager | Property, Construction | 17 | Yes (>5) |
P24 | Senior IT Staff | Health, Medical Technology | 20 | Yes (>5) |
P25 | Chief of Board of Directors Section | Government, State enterprise | 20 | Yes (>5) |
P26 | Computer Technical Officer (expertise) | Government, State enterprise | 20 | Yes (>5) |
P27 | Senior Programmer | Government, State enterprise | 10 | Yes (>3) |
P28 | Assistant Vice President | Financials, Bank, Insurance | 20 | Yes (>5) |
P29 | IT manager | Financials, Bank, Insurance | 21 | Yes (>5) |
P30 | Senior System Analyst | Financials, Bank, Insurance | 18 | Yes (>5) |
P31 | Senior System Analyst | Financials, Bank, Insurance | 17 | Yes (>5) |
P32 | Senior System Analyst | Financials, Bank, Insurance | 17 | Yes (>5) |
P33 | Senior Tester | Financials, Bank, Insurance | 17 | Yes (>5) |
P34 | Software Engineer | Financials, Bank, Insurance | 15 | Yes (>5) |
Appendix B: Demographic of WIL Students
Students’ career groups | Interviewee number | Total | Industry sector | Gender | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IT | Non-IT | Male | Female | |||
Digital content/internet/SEO/marketing | S1–S14 | 14 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 7 |
Hardware/network | S15–S16 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
IT auditing/testing/QA | S17 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
MIS | S18–S23 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
Programming | S24–S65 | 42 | 40 | 2 | 30 | 12 |
Web design/graphic | S66–S81 | 16 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 12 |
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Siddoo, V., Sawattawee, J., Janchai, W. (2019). Factors Affecting the Success of IT Workforce Development: A Perspective from Thailand’s IT Supervisors and Internship Students. In: Abdulwahed, M., Bouras, A., Veillard, L. (eds) Industry Integrated Engineering and Computing Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19139-9_9
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