Kenneth R' Bartlett

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A Foot in the Door ?Industry-sponsored
Credentials in the Recruitment of IT Workers

• Kenneth R. Bartlett
• Assistant Professor Human Resource Development
• and Project Director - NRCCTE
• University of Minnesota
• bartlett_at_umn.edu

August 2002
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Purpose of the Presentation

• Define and highlight growth of certification
• Share selected preliminary findings from NRCCTE
  study of IT industry certification
• Consider the implications for CTE policy and
  practice

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Certification

• A form of credential.
• awarded by an employer, vendor, or
  association/independent agency
• Hale, 2000
• requiring passage of an exam benchmarked to
  predetermined occupational or professional
  standards
• Carnevale Desrochers, 2002
• may or may not require prior education and
  experience.

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Industry-sponsored Credentials

• Huge growth in industry-sponsored credentials.
• Development of a parallel universe
• Adelman, 2000
• New roles for CTE
• Secondary, postsecondary, for profit, not-for
  profit, and professional associations

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Additional References
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Human Capital Theory

• People rewarded with good jobs based on their
  knowledge and skills achieved through formal
  training.

Skills
Productivity
Productivity
Wages
Productive employees
More training
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Credentials as Signals

• Signaling Theory (Spence, 1972).
• The value and impact of industry-sponsored IT
  credentials for individuals and organizations is
  largely unknown.

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Sheepskin Effects

• Wages will rise faster with extra years of
  education when the extra year also conveys a
  certificate
• Layard and Psacharopoulous (1974)

• Diploma has value without including years of
  education
• Strong sheepskin effects among women minority
  males
• Strong sheepskin effects for graduation from high
  school, trade/community colleges, university

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Credentialism

• Overemphasis on diplomas or degrees in giving
  jobs or conferring social status.
• The American Heritage Dictionary, 2000
• Credentials becoming more important at the same
  time that many jobs require less skill.

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Information Technology Certification
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IT Certification

• Almost 100 vendors/organizations offer more than
  670 separate certificates.
• Over half of a million Microsoft certified
  professionals.

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Purpose of the Study

• Examine the influence of industry sponsored
  credentials on recruitment and future education
  within the IT industry.
• Explore how firms view industry sponsored
  credentials.
• Investigate work-related attitudes of IT
  employees.

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Method

• Mail survey HR Managers from large firms
• Role of credentials in recruitment and on-going
  training and education.
• Internet survey IT employees
• Value of industry sponsored credentials and
  relationship to workplace attitudes.

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Findings HR Executive Survey

• Increased number of job applicants have
  industry-sponsored credentials.
• Four-year college degree still gold standard.
• Benefits of credentials to firm
• Helps to identify applicants KSAs
• Makes recruitment easier and more time efficient
• Two-thirds of firms will fund.

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Findings IT Employee Survey

• Improve cost, ease, time efficiency of
  recruitment
• Reduce cost of training
• Reduce time for new employees to learn job
• Increase likelihood of success for new employees

Benefits of industry-sponsored credentials
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Employees with Credentials vs. those without

• More positive impact on recruitment
• Greater impact on career success
• Higher perceived access to training positively
• No impact on learning transfer, job satisfaction,
  commitment, turnover

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Findings IT Employee Survey

• Turnover and Job Attitude
• More than half the responding IT employees feel
  credentials increase the likelihood of turnover.
• Non significance relationship between number of
  credentials, job satisfaction and organizational
  commitment.

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Findings - Method

• Senior managers of large firms surveyed out.
• Firm policies prohibit participation.
• Response rates.
• Internet data collection many issues.
• Authentication, instrument design, privacy, data
  analysis.

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Implications for CTE

• Credentials are increasingly popular as they
  facilitate recruitment, and signal expertise.
• Certifications should play a role at the
  postsecondary and continuing education levels
• Need to understand perceptions of HR executives
  and other key stakeholders toward credentials.

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Future Research

• Year 3 NRCCTE study
• Evidence based
• Quasi experimental
• Additional industries
• Research in other fields

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Questions