The growing computer help desk industry is boosting enrolments in a University of Queensland course introduced last year for people interested in the human side of computing.
Dr Robert Colomb of the University's Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department said increasing enrolments in the information management major in the bachelor of arts program reflected rapid changes in the computer industry.
'These changes include the kinds of work people do and the kinds of skills they need,' he said.
Dr Colomb has produced a tabulation of computing job ads from The Australian newspaper taken on one day each year from 1993 to 1997, with a comparable day in 1988 for comparison.
In 1988, the typical programmer worked in COBOL or PL1 on information systems applications (45 percent of all technical jobs advertised).
In 1997, the typical programmer worked in either a fourth-generation language like Oracle Forms or a customer-off-the-shelf applications system like SAP or Hogan (33 percent of technical jobs).
'The demand for COBOL/PL1 programmers has reduced to 14 percent of technical jobs, even though it is being kept up by year 2000 projects,' he said.
'Furthermore, demand for support (help-desk) positions, either communications or systems, has risen from nothing in 1988 to 13 percent of all technical jobs over the last three years, with most of the increase in the past three years. These people mainly support end-user computing: people who do their own computing using personal computer-based tools.
'These trends suggest that the applications programmer, the typical computer science or information technology graduate whose skills are primarily technical, is disappearing.
'We see more frequently that applications are being delivered to the user constructed using very high level programming languages (for example, Microsoft Access) or customer-off-the-shelf (COTS) applications suites.
'Although the developers of these systems need to be technically competent, their primary skill is to understand the business requirements for the systems.'
'Put crudely, it is easy to develop a Web site but it is hard to develop a good one. To develop a good Web site, one needs to understand the nature of the product, the needs and skills of the users, and how the two fit together, which are not technical skills.
'It is becoming the case that the traditional technical people are either building the products that the new people are using, or are keeping large systems going. Professional programmers now are less frequently writing code directly employed by end-users.'
Dr Colomb said responding to these changes, the University last year launched the information management course within the bachelor of arts degree. The new program complements existing professional programs, including the bachelors of information technology, science, and engineering (computer systems engineering); as well as the bachelor of engineering (software engineering) launched this year.
'Other universities offer programs called information management, but generally as part of a professional program in librarianship or information systems,' he said.
'Our program is in a broad-based Faculty of Arts, and offers much more flexibility than the primarily professional/ technical programs offered by other universities.'
Preliminary information from first-year enrolments indicated about 50 students had identified information management as a major while about 30 students in second and third year also planned majors in this area.
'Most second-year and above students surveyed are concentrating on information management, but the program's flexibility is shown in the combinations of information management with English, law, commerce, languages and ancient history,' he said.
'About 20 students expressed an interest in an honours year, which we are designing.
'The program's impact is much greater than its actual enrolment, since both compulsory second-year subjects have enrolments this year of about 70 students, only a minority of whom are information management majors.'
An important program aspect was to provide a final year project subject intended to be a practical application of information management skills to an industrial (or possibly simulated
industrial) problem in the students' third year.
Although the program was introduced only last year, several advanced students were able to revise their study plan to include information management. One health care professional undertaking a bachelor of arts completed a project comparing the effectiveness of primary health care coding systems, carried out with the National Centre for Classification in Health.
For further information contact Dr Colomb, telephone 07 3365 1190, email: colomb@csee.uq.edu.au
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