In 2005, the National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies held four regional focus groups to gather input from IT programs at two-year institutions and their industry partners. When asked how community college faculty could stay current on trends in the field, forum participants had the following suggestions:

1. Provide college faculty members with job-shadowing and mentoring relationships with industry professionals.

2. Fund annual professional development activities for faculty members.

3. Deal with the fact that some tenured faculty members refuse to stay current.

4. Offer faculty members the opportunity to earn vendor certifications.