About 99% of the population does not have the background or mental ability to learn these skills.
The 1% that does, mostly have a job already.
I am a skilled programmer in C++ and Java, and to do the simplest things in a real work environment you need to know a lot.
That's been the truth for several decades in business and technology. We don't need any fakes and frauds in these economically critical fields.
Otherwise, many of our high-tech jobs could be easily transferred to off-shore, mud-hut countries, and our national debt could soar to fifteen trillion dollars or so.
Correct-o-mundo.
Case in point: IBM announced layoff of 1000+ employees in the US yesterday. Based on the news coverage that has focused on getting reaction from Union reps, I think it’s a fair bet these are not programmers or program manger jobs. They’re factory workers. And unfortunately, is is impractical in most cases to “re-train” a 30-year factory worker to become a C++ programmer. It’s not so much a question of mental capacity but rather a case of trying to acquire news skills and climb a steep learning-curve at the age when most people are much closer to retirement than to their first job.
And for the exceptional person who can surmount these odds, the fact remains that they would just be able to compete for IT jobs, along with tens of thousands of younger, more experienced candidates.
For all practical purposes, once certainjobs are lost, they are lost forever, and will not come back. And talk of retraining is going to need to be very much more focused and effective, and more selectively delivered.
Absolutely. Cheaper coders can be gotten off shore too. A retrained person is not going to put in the time to get a project done like a fresh from college kid who's hungry to make his mark.
There's a reason 35-40 is considered over-the-hill in the industry.