Help wanted: 'T-shaped' skills to meet 21st century needs: as employers clamor for versatile workers who can wear many hats in the workplace, businesses are partnering with academic institutions to develop them

A handful of students within the business and engineering schools at San Jose State University in California are headed for careers in service-related industries with an expanded set of marketable skills. A specially devised curriculum shared by the two schools includes instruction in such areas as service design and computer science, as well as soft skills electives including leadership and communication. The university's goal is to help students develop an array of skills that are highly prized by organizations in service-related fields, explains Professor Stephen Kwan at the university's College of Business. For example, he says, 'students in the program learn how information technologies can be used to create innovations within all types of service companies.' San Jose State is not alone in offering this interdisciplinary approach, called the Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME) program. In fact, it is one of more than 250 universities that provide SSME-related courses thanks in large part to IBM. It was Big Blue that developed the SSME curriculum in 2003 and that for the past five years has helped university faculties institute it as part of the IBM Academic Initiative--a program that helps accredited schools throughout the world develop a more competitive workforce. To date, the expansive IBM initiative has helped more than 8,500 faculties at 4,000 institutions teach 40,000 courses to more than 2.5 million students.
A handful of students within the business and engineering schools at San Jose State University in California are headed for careers in service-related industries with an expanded set of marketable [...]