|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 15, 2004 RESEARCH
TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.
-- Four of North Carolina's
largest research universities -- Duke,
N.C. A&T, UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C.
State -- today joined IBM's initiative to better prepare
students for information technology jobs of tomorrow. The series of ongoing IBM University Day
events bring together IBMers and academics to share information and collaborate
on technology projects and trends, industry requirements and future employment
opportunities. IBM's Academic Initiative, launched earlier
this year, is an innovative program offering a wide range of technology
education benefits to meet the goals of most colleges and universities. As a
partner in this initiative, participating schools receive free access to IBM
software, discounted hardware, course materials, training and curriculum
development. "IBM is making this investment in North
Carolina's economic future, as well as own company in this state, by taking our
relationships with state universities to a whole new level," said Barry
Eveland, IBM's senior state executive for North Carolina. "We intend this Academic Initiative to
help lead to the bright, optimistic future we see on the horizon," he
added. "We see a tremendous opportunity, lots of innovation to be done in
a variety of high tech fields. In order for IBM to lead in these opportunities,
students/future employees with the skills and education will be required."
Needs and Opportunities for the
Future It notes, however, that colleagues and
universities will have to quadruple their number of graduates by 2008 in order
to meet this demand. This situation exists at a time when schools in North
Carolina, and nationwide, are witnessing dwindling enrollments in computer
science and related engineering courses. IBM will work with partner schools that
support open computer standards and seek to use open source and IBM
technologies for teaching purposes, both directly and virtually, via the
Internet. Margaret Ashida, IBM's Director of University
Relations, told those in attendance at the IBM University Day that the IBM
Academic Initiative is a direct response to the needs expressed by clients,
business partners, faculty, and even the company's own employees. "One of the greatest concerns of leaders
from industry and academia alike is the challenge of preparing talent capable
of driving innovation -- and thus economic growth, Ms. Ashida noted.
"Faculty are interested in open standards and open source and free access
to tools that will help them infuse the most current technologies into the
classroom." IBM's Legacy of University Support in
North Carolina In addition, IBM hires more graduates of
Duke's Fuqua School of Business than any other company, and N.C. State
University produces more IBM new hires than any other single school in the
nation. Overall, IBM recruits heavily for new hires from many schools in North
Carolina, not only for positions in RTP but nationwide as well. IBM has increased its worldwide new-hire
projections for this year by 88 percent -- to nearly 19,000 total hires. Most
of these positions will be for people with technical skills. IBM will hire
between 300 and 400 graduates of North Carolina schools, with the lion's share
coming from North Carolina State, Duke, The University of North Carolina and
North Carolina A&T. Even after attrition, IBM expects to have a worldwide
work force of more than 330,000 by year-end 2004, the largest number of
employees in more than a decade. To date this year, IBM has established
partnerships under its Academic Initiative with schools such as Michigan State
University, Arizona State, the University of Houston, Texas State, the
University of Wisconsin, City College of New York and Rutgers University. ### Addendum N.C. State University MILLER, TOM
SMITH, JOHN
B
HARER,
JOHN Ph.D.
HARRISON,
SAM
|