College Center Teaches Convergence Skills

As technology continues to advance at an unprecedented rate, the study of IT has become, in many regards, a multidisciplinary subject. Convergence Technology Center (CTC) programs, like the one at Collin College in Texas, are training students for this new model by providing a collaborative approach to the integration of technologies such as Voice Over Internet Protocol (IP), Video Over IP, Image Over IP and Data Over IP.

The CTC at Collin College was developed in 2004 as a way to not only address convergence trends in technology, but also to stave off possible closure of the college’s IT and communications curriculum due to declining enrollment. Now the program boasts a 55 percent increase in enrollment, and graduates are finding jobs, Collin College officials said.

The Collin College CTC program helps prepare future IT professionals for the changing technology landscape by teaching them how to install, maintain and operate equipment across networks that securely transmit voice, video, data and images.

“The world of IT is changing,” said Ann Beheler, principal investigator of the CTC at Collin College and vice president of academic affairs at Porterville College. “It used to be a lot of art and a little science. It is now more science and is also moving back into a more centralized processing where the employee has to have a broader set of skills. They are now handling end-to-end computing.”

The CTC program collects regional and national job forecast data for its students annually and has indicated that convergence skills will continue to be in demand for the next several years. Convergence positions include network administrators, systems administrators, data center administrators and sales engineers.

The Collin College CTC was originally funded in 2004 by a $2.46 million, four-year grant from the National Science Foundation to meet the growing need for skilled specialists in the area of Convergence Technology and Home Technology Integration. The center received a new grant of $1.56 million in September to focus on the emerging needs of green IT convergence technicians.