Wednesday, June 27, 2001

4 Universities Agree to Teach Business Skills to Computer Students By FLORENCE OLSEN Seven Philadelphia-area corporations have established close ties with four universities in the region to improve the business know-how, or "soft" skills, of computer-science and information-systems students. The corporations' executives say many tech-savvy graduates lack a "customer-service orientation," or even the skills needed to participate effectively in business meetings. The four institutions -- La Salle, Temple, Villanova, and West Chester Universities -- have signed agreements with some of the largest employers in the region to change their computer-science and information-systems curriculums. Greater Philadelphia First, an association of corporate chief executives, is providing staff support and coordination for the new program. "Is there a problem with the soft skills? Yes," says John J. Helferty, an associate professor and the chairman of Temple's department of electrical and computer engineering. The engineering program emphasizes the value of "getting the widget to work," rather than people skills, he says. But, he adds, the university must do more to help technology students develop their interpersonal and project-management skills. So beginning this fall, as part of the university's skills-development agreement with Lockheed Martin Management & Data Systems, Temple will use Lockheed Martin employees as industrial advisers in the design course that all senior-year engineering students must take. La Salle has agreed to expand its use of industry advisory boards, and to create student internships, on-site corporate workshops for faculty members, and capstone courses that require students to develop their presentation skills and other professional abilities. Villanova and West Chester have made similar commitments. And some faculty members are encouraging their students, members of the "fast-food generation," to avail themselves of opportunities, through their career centers, to learn the etiquette of the business lunch. Michael J. Emmi, who is chairman and chief executive officer of the SCT Corporation, conceived of the business-skills program. He says SCT spends six to eight weeks training new employees before assigning them to business units in the company. Corporations could reduce their training costs, he says, if computer-science graduates had a better understanding of how businesses work. According to Mr. Emmi, the targets of soft-skills training are the "heads-down programmers who don't realize the impact of their job on seven other jobs in a project, or how to relate with the team." Nowadays, he says, a "team" often includes the customer as well as employees in different business units of the company. Faculty members already do much of what is outlined in the agreements, such as requiring students to give oral and written presentations. But they also agree that more could be done to develop those and other soft skills. La Salle, for example, has added three business-course requirements to its programs in computer science and management-information systems. "It will be a nice balance for the students because our courses tend to be very machine-oriented, rather than people-oriented," says Linda J. Elliott, an assistant professor and the head of La Salle's department of mathematics and computer science. The agreements among the universities and the corporations call for yearly, written assessments of the universities' curricular and extracurricular technology programs. "What we look for is improvement," adds Mr. Emmi, who says the program could serve as a model for other regions. "Business pretty much across the country is saying the same thing" about the business skills of tech graduates, he says. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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