Great Falls College MSU has heard from local businesses that employees with programming skills are hard to find.
In the past several years, websites have become more complex with more dynamic content, and finding employees with skills to create those sites is challenging. A new programming degree at
Great Falls College MSU aims to ease that challenge.
“There was a desire among our industry partners to have a programming degree,” said Steven Robinett, Program Director of Microcomputer Support and Networking at GFC MSU. “It is a needed and asked for skill in Great Falls.”
The new degree takes two years to complete and will prepare students to enter the workforce as computer programmers and software developers.
The program’s curriculum will focus on the underlying technology used in software development and programming.
“We’ll teach skills that are practical, but are also core skills, so as technology changes our graduates can apply their skills to new platforms,” Robinett said.
The new program focuses heavily on web technology.
“Almost anything you develop is going to end up with an Internet presence,” Robinett said. “We’ve got a deliberate focus on the modern web-based technology.”
After graduation, students will be prepared for jobs working for large businesses that have both public-facing and internal websites. They could also be employed by any business involved in e-commerce. There are also a few small web development firms in the Great Falls area that employ programmers.
“We’ve taken pains to create something we believe is in line with the area’s needs,” Robinett said.
Jeff Patterson, Founder and CEO of Schoolhouse IT, agrees that graduates from this program will be in high demand.
“Every industry relies on technology now more than ever,” Patterson said. “As computer technology continues to advance, so does the size and scope of these jobs. The tools being introduced to manage large and complex computer networks rely on programming skills.”
Schoolhouse IT works to solve school technology challenges by writing custom programs for schools and working with existing software. The company employs just fewer than 10 people, but every member of the team understands at least the basics of computer programming.
“We solve school technology challenges with tools from a wide variety of vendors,” Patterson said. “These vendor solutions typically do not communicate well with each other. We spend time scripting and programming solutions to knit these technologies into a cohesive orchestra of technology.”
Finding employees with the skills to accomplish the company’s mission is challenging.
“All of Montana suffers from the same concern: when we hire a programmer or a skilled technician, we generally end up hiring that employee away from a friend,” Patterson said.
Interest in the new programming degree is strong, and some courses are already full.
The programming degree is also offered to high school students through Dual Enrollment. Programming courses are scheduled to accommodate high school students spending a half day at their high school and a half day at GFC MSU. High schoolers can begin taking programming courses starting as juniors and will complete the first year of the two-year degree by the time they graduate high school.
Programming students should have an interest in technology and need to enjoy learning because the computer industry is constantly changing, Robinett said.
Robinett himself has seen many changes during his career.
“I was born in the late ’50s, a time of vacuum tubes and three channels on the TV set,” he said. “The technology we have now is total science fiction.”
Robinett’s undergraduate degree is in music. However, he found himself working as a software developer for Honeywell in the early ’80s.
“In the ’80s there really weren’t computer science degrees,” he said.
As computers exploded into businesses and homes, companies looked for applicants with certain aptitudes, even if they didn’t have experience with computers. Programmers who are also musicians are a fairly common occurrence.
“Music, like programming, is very mathematical,” Robinett said. “It’s a language; it represents things that happen in order over time.”
Robinett went on to work as a programmer for a defense contractor in the Washington, D.C. area, and then earned a master’s degree in education with a focus in computer science. He spent 10 years teaching at Allegany College in Cumberland, Maryland.
“Then I wanted to get out of the east coast, so I moved to Montana,” he said.
Robinett spent a couple years working as a computer programmer for the State of Montana in the Department of Administration where he worked on mt.gov and associated projects before coming to Great Falls College MSU to launch this new program.
The new programming degree compliments the college’s other degree offerings, such as microcomputer support, network infrastructure and computer administration.
“Now the college has a pretty complete offering of technology programs,” Robinett said.
To learn more about the programming degree at Great Falls College MSU, contact admissions at 406.268.3700 or visit gfcmsu.edu. The fall semester application deadline is Aug. 24 for new students, and Aug. 26 for current students. Classes begin Aug. 29.
By Erin Granger
Great Falls College MSU News Service
