When I wrote that we need better training if we are to roll back offshoring and create jobs, many took issue with the assertion that anything but pure cost could possibly drive jobs to H1-B visas. In Is nearshoring the new IT outsourcing? I outlined reasons companies might keep IT domestic despite upfront savings. However, these belie the point to my call for training, which is really about how the introduction to the enterprise of social media, mobile, cloud computing and other next generation technologies is rewriting how business works, best described in Gartner’s recent call for “creative destruction” in IT. Many of the jobs I’m talking about are yet to be created and, if they’re not filled by U.S. applicants, these won’t go overseas but rather wll leave a talent gap that puts U.S. businesses at a competitive disadvantage. By training for these jobs, we’re not rolling back offshoring of specific positions, but potentially of entire businesses.
Technology is becoming fully integrated into and crucial to the average employee’s work, leading to an increasingly blurred line between IT and the rest of the business. This trend offers an opportunity for U.S. IT because it requires people who can fully integrate with the rest of the company, empathizing with the problems employees face and working with them to offer solutions. It also points out a glaring need for training as there is currently a limited pool of people who can pull off this balancing act, giving us a second talent gap.
Source:http://blogs.computerworld.com/19165/training_to_stem_offshoring_ii_look_to_it_of_the_future_not_past
