Search

The field of information technology has been bombarded by news of shortages for educated and qualified IT professionals. At the same time headlines in practitioner journals are showing that individuals are not entering IT-related degree programs. For the last few years, enrollments have been down in IT-related programs across the United States. In order to explore this issue, the current research project examines the student identification with IT-related degree programs as a measure of their attachment to the field. The study conducted indicates students do identify with their chosen IT-related profession (major) and that this identification is related to both the similarity the student has with the profession prototype and with perceptions of the profession. A complete review of the study and implications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]