Form@tic

1. PROCEEDINGS, CURRENT STATUS AND OBJECTIVES

1.3 A message from the economic arena: more people with TIC titles are needed

In the last few years, the intensified process of transformation that derives from the applied computer and telecomunication technologies has created the need, in many countries, and the necessity to adopt new measures in order to increase the number of qualified personnel that could contribute in the support and advance of this transformation.

Therefore, the USA as well as different countries from the European Union, have initiated programs in order to increase the number of competent professionals in the field. For the Spanish state, most recently, and at the request of the Catalan Government, they have adopted a resolution passed by an ample majority in the Congrés dels Diputats concerning the "measures necessary in order to meet the growing demands for personnel specialized in the new technologies of information and communication". (Butllet' del Congrés 19.09.00).

If we do not wish to complicate the efficient incorporation of new TIC technologies in the business arena, and consequently compromise our competibility, in Catalunya as well, we need a program with these characteristics.

Therefore it makes sense, to avoid delay in initiating the Plan, even though the disponibility of new statistics and, logically, our own exerpeince derived from the results of the application of the Plan, advise us to begin introducing successive adaptations in the different stages of its implementation.

1.4 Plan Objectives

It is necessary to distinguish between two types of objectives in this Plan: a Main Objective and Character Specific Objectives.

a) Main Objective of the Plan

1. To substantially increase by 2003-2004, the number of competent and university titled personnel in the information and communication technology fields through the following:
(i) The increase in the number of titles granted in studies of computer, telecommunications, and other closely related areas.
(ii) The profound initiative for post-graduate programs which further the capacity of qualified personnel of all kinds.

b) Character Specific Objectives

1. To further the political process, already begun, for the promotion of measures orientated towards academic benficiaries with TIC titles, in this manner increasing the relation between titled students and first year students.

2. To push forward with a new political policy of amplification of the offer of places in TIC studies: for first cycle, also first and second cycle, and as in the case of second cycle, or within programs with dual titles.

3. Promote post-graduate courses characterized by certificate courses open to title holders from all disciplines and whoever may want to further their knowledge in the information and communication technologies.

*The following four specific objectives represent changes in the norm, with the fourth, fifth, and sixth, being jurisdiction of state.

4. Introduce in the study reforms debates about the convenience of incorporating subjects that help the graduates from different disciplines to have disposable knowledge of TIC which could make the completion of their jobs easier.

5. To push forward the appropriate iniatives in the face of the Central Administration, in order to modify the current entrance norm, from highschool to computer and telecommunications university studies, with the goal being to facilitate this entrance.

6.To push the legislative reform which facilitates the growth of avenues of entrance in second cycle computer and telecommunications studies.

7. Close cooperation with the Central Admininstration in order to guarantee the efficient application of the approved motion by the great majority in the Congrés dels Diputats (Central Congress) about the "measures necessary in order to meet the growing demands for personnel specialized in the new technologies of information and communication". (Butllet' del Congrés 19.09.00)