Secondary School Business Educators’ Perceptions of the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Needed by Information Systems Majors Relative to Other Business Majors

Abstract

The demand for information technology (IT) or information systems (IS) personnel remains strong, despite the cyclical downturn in the technology industry. The field continues to offer good salaries, challenge, and high levels of job satisfaction. The IS profession needs to attract the best and brightest students to the field to satisfy the needs of business. Secondary school educators are a key factor in that effort since research suggests that they often have a significant influence on the career choices of tertiary level students. This paper reports the results from a survey of 248 secondary school business educators in Illinois regarding their perceptions of the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) needed by the following business majors: information systems, accounting, finance, management, and marketing. The survey results suggest that secondary school business educators generally have an incomplete and inaccurate opinion of the skills necessary to succeed in the IS profession. IS was not rated highest on any KSA and on nine out of fourteen KSAs, IS was rated lowest--in some cases by quite a large margin. The results indicate that the IS profession faces a challenge recruiting students away from other professions. Even those students who choose a major in business may not choose IS because of inaccurate perceptions of the profession by secondary school business teachers. (Contains 3 tables.)