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By Kym Reinstadler
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WEST MICHIGAN — Local colleges can’t keep up with the demand from employers for information technology graduates.

Next spring, Grand Valley State University expects to graduate 60 students with bachelor’s degrees in computer science and information systems, and another 10 with master’s degrees. Calvin College has 15 bachelor’s candidates and Hope College has just one. Western Michigan University plans to graduate about 20-25 from its program.

That’s a bleak scenario for the 57 percent of West Michigan companies that plan to hire new information technology staff over the next six months, according to the new Technology Employment Forecast by Paragon Recruiting of Holland.

The only people it’s no problem for are the soon-to-be-graduates, who are being courted through paid internships and typically are presented multiple job offers before they they’re presented a diploma.

“This year, we’ve received at least five postings (openings) for every available student,” said Paul Leidig, director of GVSU’s School of Computing and Information Services. “There’s definitely a shortage of talent graduating into the field.”

Hope College Computer Science Professor Mike Jipping says he sat next to an Intel executive at a recent conference who told him if he could graduate 500 students in 2012, she’d hire them in a heartbeat.

West Michigan manufacturing, health care, retail/wholesale, communications and professional services companies, and government and educational institutions are hard-pressed to find people with the technical skills they need. The shortage is particularly acute for those scouting managers with mid- to high-level experience, said Beth DeWilde, Paragon’s chief recruiter.

“Plans to hire show that the area’s economy is making progress over the lows of two to three years ago,” DeWilde said. “Employers need to realize that candidates with the computer skills they seek are not easy to find and often have a choice of opportunities.”

Although the recession hasn’t completely lost its grip, Open Systems Technologies hired 30 IT professionals in its Grand Rapids and Minneapolis offices in 2011 but has been unable to fill six openings, Senior Technical Recruiter Tamara Takuri said.

Atomic Object hired 10 software designers and interaction designers for its Grand Rapids office in 2011, and needs to find six more for the metro Detroit office it plans to open in 2012, President Carl Erickson said.

The shortage is not the fault of colleges, says Keith Vander Linden, professor of computer science and information systems at Calvin College. He says he can tout computing careers at freshmen meetings until he’s blue in the face, but most students close their minds the possibility before college.

Media is probably to blame, Vander Linden says.

First, no teen-ager aspires to be TV’s stereotypical geek who’s married to a computer and works isolated in a dark room, he said.

Second, news reports five years ago focused on technology careers being “off-shored” to India and China, where people work cheaper.

Despite a robust U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics forecast for computer programmers, information systems analysts and software developers, parents discouraged sons and daughters from majoring in computer science, believing well-paying jobs in the field were migrating overseas.

“Truth is that only tech support went offshore,” says Hope College’s Jipping. “The jobs that require critical thinking — programmers, analysts, designers, project managers — those are still here. Or, in some cases, (the jobs have) gone but come back.”

Fortunately, computer science enrollments are increasing, Jipping said. Hope could graduate 11 in 2013. Calvin could have 20.

Ironically, the media could be responsible for the the uptick. Vander Linden says the popular movie “The Social Network” misrepresented Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as a nerd who couldn’t get a date, yet it cracked the stereotype by showing tech types having fun.

A bachelor’s degree is a critical first step, says Atomic Object’s Erickson, who taught computer science at GVSU for 10 years.

He says it’s difficult for schools to simulate everything students must know to develop software, mobile extensions and imbedded computers because information technologies evolve overnight. Grads can expect to continue their education on the job.

Erickson prefers to hire people already living in West Michigan because it saves money. Atomic Object’s last four hires came from Wisconsin, Illinois, California and the United Kingdom.

Companies find that providing internships for IT workers in training is an effective way recruit talent that will stick around, DeWilde said.

Vander Linden had a group of five students in a junior seminar fall semester who developed a mobile Android application for payitsquare.com. Students had 24/7 access to tech support staff at OST, which offered the project.

“Stepping off campus in a junior-level class is new, but that’s this market,” Vander Linden said. “Four years ago, students feared they wouldn’t have a job if they went into computer science. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and the Google guys did more than OK.”

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