Keep Moving Forward

As stated in Newton’s third law of motion, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that in every interaction between two objects, the size of the force acting on one object equals the size of the force acting on the second object.

The professional IT landscape is changing every day. Per Sir Isaac Newton, therefore, IT education should be changing as well. The education propelling individuals into an IT profession should be having an equal and opposite reaction to the change in the IT professional landscape — but is it?

According to a blog post by Margaret Andrews on the StratEDgy blog, the United States alone spends approximately $1.7 trillion on education. This money goes toward bettering existing education programs, and even creating new ones, and yet the educated are still unemployed and underemployed.

“With people living longer, social security and other government 'safety nets’ faltering, and the world of work changing,” Andrews writes, “people have both the opportunity and need to ‘retool’ more frequently and expand the duration of their active working life.”

The growing gap between employer needs and human talent potential is becoming problematic for universities and other education providers. It is harder for traditional schools to innovate the way they teach and train — but those that do innovate are the ones that will thrive.

Educating for success isn’t just about giving students material to memorize anymore, it’s about giving students experience in the field. Success in an IT career is about having skills, and not as much about regurgitating facts and figures. Online training is no longer just a perk, it’s essential, and instructors and schools must be on board with that.

There are many learning institutions and programs that are behind the times, choosing to be acted upon rather than to act. TestOut’s experience based training has been ahead of the curve for quite some time now. The courses produced by the development team at TestOut have been designed to give students real-world hands-on experience. The lab simulations are the focus of the training material, and prepares students to be successful in their IT careers.

If you are unemployed, or underemployed and looking to re-educate, then make sure you find a training program that is innovative and adapting with the changing workplace. Try TestOut’s simulation based training today to see whether it is right for you.

About the Author — Jake Slater is the social media manager for GoCertify and a graduate of Brigham Young University. Jake recently experienced an equal and opposite reaction to some week-old pizza that he attempted to eat for lunch.