A grant from the state will help South Arkansas Community College make some needed upgrades for its Futures of Information Technology program.
The FIT program at South Arkansas Community College received a $243,658 grant from the state Department of Education for upgrading equipment and software for the program.
The FIT program is geared toward training high school and college students to work in the IT field, which program Director Kathy Harrell said is needed in the area.
“Last time I checked, there are four jobs in the area that have been posted for about three months because employers can’t find people to take these jobs,” she said. “So one of the benefits is that there’s jobs available locally as soon as you finish.”
The program was started in 2015 and currently has 25 students. Harrell said no high school students are currently enrolled in the program.
As part of the program, students take 10 courses in order to get a technical certificate and 20 courses in order to receive an associate’s degree.
Harrell said the driving force for creating the program was a need within the local community, as well as nationally, for well-trained IT workers. When working on the curriculum for the program, SouthArk officials talked with local businesses such as Murphy Oil, Murphy USA, Lion Oil and Simmons Bank to get a better idea of what the students coming out of the program should have training in.
Along with IT-centered courses, students in the program are required to take English, speech and business communications courses. Harrell said these requirements come from a need businesses had expressed for IT workers to be able to communicate about issues, train new employees and present overall topics to other groups within the company.
In addition to the businesses, SouthArk officials communicated with local high schools in the area about ensuring juniors and seniors knew the program was an option for them. High school students are able to take the courses to work toward their degree while also counting them as electives at their respective school. Students at Parkers Chapel and Smackover can take classes for the program at their high school while other students are able to travel to the SouthArk campus for classes.
If a student starts taking courses during their junior year, they could be near completion of a certificate by their high school graduation and thus be able to go into the workforce sooner. Along with courses, students have the chance to do field work as paid or non-paid internships in the community.
The mean income for people who work in IT is around $80,000 a year, according to Fox Business.
While the program at SouthArk is primarily focused on the physical IT side of the industry, SouthArk officials have been in communication with Southern Arkansas University Magnolia and Arkansas Tech University to make sure the credits students get would be able to transfer to their four-year degree programs. These are more focused on the computer programming side of the industry.
While at SouthArk, students in the program are given the opportunity to earn certifications in the different software programs they’re learning about. Harrell said the most prominent is Microsoft Office. Additionally, students are using hands-on equipment that is up to date with where it would be in the professional workforce.
When it comes to funding for the program, most of it goes toward making sure students are working with the most up-to-date equipment and software, Harrell said. With how quickly technology is changing, a piece of equipment can be classified as out of date in a little over a year. She said students can’t get into the field and not know what a piece of equipment is.
“When your computer breaks down, you need somebody to fix it,” she said. “When you get the blue screen of death, you need to call somebody to help you. You don’t want to call a help desk somewhere. You want to be able to have somebody come in and do it, who knows what they’re doing and speaks English.”
Michael Shine may be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter and like him on Facebook @MichaelAZShine for updates on Union County school news.