“There is no IT job that cannot be learned through on the job training.”
We have Americans already trained to do these jobs; companies don’t want to pay them. A programmer friend was out of work for years before getting a job as an airport screener...
You’re right about that. On the job training in the IT area can produce someone who can design and write code a step or two above “Hello World” and can set up basic network switches, maybe. It takes a bit more than just training to do the job right; it takes an education to start with.
The IT H1Bs are not off the truck without any real skills, most are college grads and most are educated here in the U.S. Many know less than what their employers think they do because of the way their home country portrays their “education” and because the dirty little secret is that they cheat in multiple ways to be sure they maintain A averages. OJT is not going to give you someone trustworthy enough in their knowledge to maintain that air traffic control system or to work on the software that controls those medical devices you rely on.
I see this shaping up to be a major election issue.
This has to stop.