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• Eagle Creek, which provides Web and app development and technical support to large health care, financial services and other companies, is now focused on setting up project centers in lower-cost U.S. areas such as South Dakota and North Dakota. The company says it can competitively provide consulting services out of South Dakota as opposed to an overseas location because it's a business-friendly state with no corporate or income tax.
• Students opting for the IT Consultant Academy certificate at the University of South Dakota will take two software engineering courses, project management and data management. The academy also offers paid internships with Eagle Creek that can lead to potential employment in IT consultant jobs that pay $40,000 to $45,000 per year.
• Such public-private partnerships are gaining in popularity.
• P-Tech in Brooklyn, N.Y., a collaboration between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York and IBM, is a six-year program allowing students to graduate with both a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering.
• Principal Rashid Davis said the associate in applied science is a "workforce-ready degree," as educators team with company executives to identify the needed problem solving and critical thinking skills.
• "The credentialing is being informed by the skills that are needed in industry, as opposed to just earning a degree," Davis said.
• President Barack Obama praised the P-Tech model during his State of the Union speech in February.
• New York city is opening two additional Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools, and New York Gov. Cuomo announced in February that the state plans to open ten new schools based on the model.
• Chicago is planning to open five P-Tech-style schools, and the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation In Idaho is offering $5 million in startup money to create a similar school that would partner with a company and a university.
• Douglas said it will take 5 to 10 years to rebuild the nation's IT workforce.
• She suggests a work grant program similar to efforts of the Works Projects Administration in the 1940s. The grant would cover a year's salary for a young, inexperienced graduate who could get on-the-job training with no cost to the company.
• "At least they get that all-important first job and training, and then they can kind of get on their way," Douglas said. "I know that a lot of U.S. companies would totally get behind that if they meant that the U.S. was behind rebuilding its IT workforce."
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