Conversion Programs
Conversion programs, such as a graduate certificate, graduate diploma or Master of Technology in Information Technology, are popular with people eager to switch to a career in IT from another field. These programs were all the rage in the 90s, when there was a shortage of IT professionals, but by the early 2000s they began to fade into the background following the dotcom crash and the drastic drop in IT employment opportunities it precipitated.
"There's a shortage of IT professionals in the industry again, so now is a good opportunity for people to switch over to IT," says Professor Doug Grant, Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies at Swinburne University of Technology.
Swinburne offers degree programs at master's and doctoral levels, and the university also operates as a technical college (through its TAFE division), providing certificate, diploma, advanced diploma and associate degree programs. The Uni's Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies specifically caters to students looking for ICT degrees in business information systems, network security, software development and telecommunications.
Grant, who has worked at the Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies since it was established in 1992, says that the 1990s dotcom boom meant that opportunities for well-paid IT careers grew rapidly, and during that time the university was spilling over with applications from students who had trained in a variety of different areas, such as librarians, school science teachers or media and communications professionals, all of whom were eager to make the shift to a more lucrative career in IT.
"We had many people who were qualified in areas of engineering, which at the time was not offering very good job opportunities, but IT was," Grant says. "So they would undertake a graduate diploma in information technology, which is a two-year part-time program, and at the end of that they would have a very good entry level qualification in IT that would enable them to take up typical graduate entry positions."
Grant should know; his own career has closely mirrored that of the postgraduate students who undertake coursework at Swinburne's Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies, which he currently manages. He began his professional life as a mathematician before moving into the insurance industry, where he worked for National Mutual. When the first PCs began to arrive on the scene in the early 1980s, Grant recognized the power of the new machines to transform his industry and soon became the "PC evangelist" at his company, sparking a fascination with technology that continues to the present day.
"I think the reality is that most people have a career development that jumps around like that nowadays," Grant says. "My own experience is one of having trained in another discipline, spending some time in industry, and then having switched to IT, where I developed my career within IT firstly as an academic/practitioner and then as an academic manager."
"Completion of the graduate diploma gives people a good, solid, and broad, introduction to IT, both from an IT development point of view and an IT usage point of view. It prepares people quite well for entry level positions, particularly for IT positions in the industry in which they have their primary initial existing qualification," Grant says.
At UNSW, the conversion course stream consists of a Graduate Certificate in Computing (4 courses, 1 semester full time), a Graduate Diploma in Computing and Information Technology (12 courses, 3 semesters full time), and a Master of Computing and Information Technology (16 courses, 4 semesters full time). These degrees are intended for students with no or minimal prior computing background, who want to retrain as IT professionals, as well as students with some computing background who want to broaden their understanding of computing, according to UNSW senior lecturer Martin.
Most institutions that offer postgraduate study in IT were recently forced to extend the work required for degrees like the Master of Technology when the Australian Computer Society (ACS) tightened its rules for the professional accreditation of postgraduate conversion programs a few years ago. "It's now important to complete the Master of Technology, which is a three-year, part-time program, if people want to achieve professional-level accreditation with the Australian Computer Society," Swinburne's Grant says.