After Carter began redesigning Green River's IT program from scratch, he held a daylong session with IT professionals in Auburn. They informed Carter that there was a shortage of skills in security and networking infrastructure. They also told him to put less emphasis on programming and that they needed IT generalists, not just technicians trained only in Microsoft Corp. technology.

After listing critical areas of knowledge for job categories that were in demand, such as network administration and security analysis, the team mapped Green River courses that could help prepare students for the job-category tasks. They developed a grid of eight competencies: business, communication, analysis, teamwork, operating system management, applications management, security and research. For each competency, they sought to determine whether the learning should take place in the classroom or through internships.

"It was also hammered home to me that we need to focus on soft skills," Carter says, so besides courses in networking, programming, databases and operating systems, students are now required to take classes in public speaking, customer service, project management and user support.

"I told Alan we can't afford to hire people who have only technical skills," says Don Alishio, a network engineering manager at The Boeing Co. who was part of the group. "They have to have business and planning skills and financial awareness," he says, adding that student interns who appear hungry to learn stand out to employers.

The session helped the college redesign its networking associate's degree and create specialized certificate programs. Alishio says he was impressed with the turnaround time on the new curriculum. "We held those meetings in March, and they were offering the new courses by September," he says. "That's fast. And the process of change in curriculum previously had been very slow."