Silicon Valley is lying about the state of U.S. tech education

[FarCenter]

A big part of the problem, say the tech billionaires and credulous pundits, is our higher education system, which somehow can't turn out nearly enough science-savvy grads. The buzzword of the year is "STEM," which stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. When it comes to STEM grads, we're falling behind the rest of the world, they say.

Don't believe it. There is no shortage of STEM graduates, and as I wrote ln February, Silicon Valley is pretending there is a labor shortage as it relentlessly lobbies to let in thousands of additional foreign IT workers under the H-1B visa program.

http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/silicon-valley-lying-about-the-state-of-us-tech-education-216736

[DetlefK]

1. Indian IT-workers, I suppose? Very bad idea.

Indian universities roll out massive amounts of graduates, but their skills and knowledge are crap. (For example, you can get a Bachelor of Science in physics, without ever attending a lecture or exam about quantum-mechanics.) And the Indians know it: That's why all indian companies start from zero when training new employees. Some companies even prefer art-students to fill vacancies for technical jobs, because those aren't tainted by the misunderstandings delivered by the bad education.

[OhioChick]

2. "can't turn out nearly enough science-savvy grads?"

BS..Comp science enrollments are soaring and have been the past few years

Computer science enrollments soared last year, rising 30%

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9237459/Computer_science_enrollments_soared_last_year_rising_30_

So there goes that "theory" of lack of qualified American workers.

[Recursion]

3. There's not a finite amount of work do be done

I'm really sick of that fallacy.

[antigop]

4. so glad to see people writing about this. Thanks for posting. nt

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. Most H1B workers are graduates of US schools.

They simply transition from a student visa to an H1b.

The problem isn't that colleges don't turn out enough STEM graduates, the problem is that few of those graduates are citizens.

[cascadiance]

6. Indians don't pay anything for bachelor's degrees, just post graduate degrees...

And as many have noted, many come here to spend that money to get post graduate degrees after getting their free bachelor's degree there. Their students don't have to worry about their tech professions being outsourced in India. They can expect to have a tech job with no investment in a comp sci bachelor's degree over there, and can expect even more if they spend a bit to get a graduate degree getting a job over there or a bit more money working at an H-1B job over here.

By comparison, American students don't want to get in to huge debt trying to get a job in this profession that is being outsourced more and more each day by shifting jobs overseas or to cheaper H-1B Visa employees. It isn't that people don't WANT to be tech employees. It is the smart ones (and they need to be smart to be in this profession) know that they can't make a living on it any more the way the system is rigged against them.

Complaining about our system of education is a red herring unless more is done to repair its inherent costs and what is available to people in terms of jobs after investing in it.

And some of my best friends are Indians and other nationalities that have immigrated here. So I hold nothing against them for trying to make a better life for themselves. It is the system we live in that is supposed to be working for us but is being rigged by those at the top that I have nothing but disdain for that needs fixing.

H-1B and our outsourcing policies are THE reason why Bangalore has replaced Silicon Valley as the technology hub of the world.