Suwimon Vongsingthong Department of Information Technology and Management, Krirk University, Thailand

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9/19/20153 Problems Identifications Revolutionary changes in technology have created an increasingly information-centric global economy. Information and knowledge has become a key factor to judge the prosperity and competitiveness of the organizations. The production of information technology will continue to rely on a large and growing force of manpower.

9/19/20154 Current Resolution Educators have been implementing curriculum models in various ways. Educators pay more attention to the theories while business gives more weight to experience and technical expertise………………chasm Tightness in the ICT labor market is more likely to occur within a few years as the demand for technology-based products and services grows.

9/19/20155 Market Requirement 2020 Krirk Research 53

9/19/20156 Career Most Wanted Krirk Research 53

9/19/20157 Thailand’s ICT Situation Krirk Research 53

9/19/20158 Government Resolution

9/19/20159 Objectives 1.To study the level of critical knowledge and skills of ICT professionals in needs of employers. 2.To test Structural Equation Model (SEM) of elements influenced success in ICT careers with primary design based on empirical data.

9/19/ Factors related to qualification of ICT staff 1.foundation of information technology 2.operating system 3.network system 4.software development 5.project management 6.database management 7.database application 8.business 9.system support

9/19/ Research Methodology Documentary Research Quantitative Research Qualitative Research

12 Independent Variables Conceptual Framework foundation of information technology operating system network system software development project management database management database application business system support Qualification of ICT Manpower aspired by Employer aspired by Employer

9/19/ Research Approach 1.Factors affecting abilities of ICT staff were collected through quantitative research methodology. 2.In-depth semi-structured interview was systematically brought in to prove the consistency of the model. 3.Multivariate analysis technique, Structural Equation Model (SEM) to prove the level of necessity of elements influenced success in ICT careers.

9/19/ Population/Sample Size 8,501 ICT Superintendents in enterprises in Bangkok and metropolitan Yamane confidence level 95 % with 5% error Purposive Sampling 385 Summary of key functions of ICT professionals 2011, NSO Populati on Sample Size

9/19/ Data Collection

9/19/ Research Results The validity of the model (Qualification of ICT manpower appropriated to the requirement of employers) Table 1 Pearson’s correlation between factors affected abilities of ICT professionals

Table 2 The confirmatory factor analysis of IT Qualification Model 17 Research Results The evaluation of overall fitness of the model and the numeric optimization of a likelihood function

9/19/ Results  The result of goodness-of-fit of overall model and its individual parameters reveals that the Path model of IT Qualification is consistent with the empirical data.  Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) in the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) gives well results of testing. [ 2 =22.95, df =15 ( 2 /df= 1.53), p <.01, robust CFI =1.00, RMSEA =.038]

9/19/ Research Results Path Analysis on fitness of optimization model Figure 1 Path Diagram of Best Fitted Data

9/19/ Results  Regression weights shows that all 9 latent variables have a significant P-value which is smaller than 0.05  9 factors are essential components to the success of ICT professionals with standardized factor loading ( ) between and the reliability of the observed variables (R 2 ) between 26% to 64%.

9/19/ Results  The observed variables with highest coefficient of determination is knowledge and skills in business and database management which have identical standardized factor loading of  The observed variables with lowest coefficient of determination is knowledge and skills in database application has standardized factor loading of 0.51.

9/19/ In-depth Interview

9/19/ In-depth Interview

9/19/ Conclusion  The nine elements of knowledge and skills which cover both hard skills and soft skills are consistent with the standard curricula suggested in Europe (Career Space Consortium, 2001), U.S.A (Brainbench, 2007), Australia (Ruth, 2012) as well as Thailand (Ministry of Education, 2009). It also indicated that those skills should be concurrently implanted.

9/19/ Recommendation  Practice-based mechanism, for example, self-studies on related hardware and software tools and field training in enterprises should be adverted to stimulate know-how in business process.  Soft skills such as project management and system support are necessary.  A tight collaboration between educators is and enterprises suggested to enhance clear perspective on its application.

9/19/ Recommendation  The intellectual resources for lifelong learning generated through educational reforms policy jointly developed by business and educator shall be advantages to all parties.

9/19/ End of Presentation Suggestions are welcome. =============== All comments will offer a great merits to this research.