Nurturing the Next Generation (IT education, etc.)
NTT DATA's Commitment
NTT DATA endeavors to develop the next generation of human resources in the field of IT--a core technology that has become crucial to the competitiveness of our industry and nation--through various means, including our leadership role on the Nippon Keidanren Subcommittee on Development of Advanced Human Resources in Information and Communications Through the Dissemination and Promotion of Practical IT Training in Higher Education.
Nurturing IT Professionals to Contribute to Industry and Society
CSR Activities Start from Familiarity with IT
IT continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Its role in society is ever-more important, and it has grown from a tool for improved workplace efficiency to a means of creating new value. The ground covered by IT is expanding as well, and with the increased demand for high-level technology it has become socially imperitive that we secure qualified IT professionals.
The key to nurturing Olympic gold medalists is to discover talented athletes early and give them full support through years of training. This is also key in the nurturing of IT professionals. If we want Japan to produce numerous high-level IT professionals, we must familiarize our young people with science at an early age. We must encourage their excitement and eagerness with regard to science and technology. However, unlike Asia's rapidly industrializing nations or Japan during the era of rapid growth, when we believed that science could solve all of humanity's problems, we take things like cell phones and the Internet for granted. Thus it is a challenge to focus young people's hopes and dreams on science and technology in today's Japan, with its diversity of values and lifestyles. Therefore, I believe our society must take the initiative by creating an environment that expands young people's interest in IT and provides opportunities to pursue that interest.
As part of our CSR activities to help nurture the next generation, NTT DATA is responding to this need with activities aimed at children in the elementary and middle-school grades. These activities include hands-on IT fairs and opportunities to observe, first-hand, what IT and other professionals do in the workplace. By making it fun for kids to learn about high technology by allowing them to work with computers, exposing them to information-security issues and so forth, we can inspire their enthusiasm for the future and plant seeds of knowledge that will continue to grow. Meanwhile, at the high-school level we're working to nurture the next generation through support for the International Olympiad in Informatics, a global computer programming competition.
Background and Practical Skills for Tomorrow's "Interpreters"
One of the skills that IT professionals of the future will need is the ability to imagine what IT can accomplish and how it can contribute to business and society, and to then implement those ideas. We need people who have not only the technological aptitude and knowledge to keep up with this rapidly advancing field but also the broad perspective on society and business that will allow them to serve as a bridge, or even a kind of interpreter, between the two. Society seeks people with this skill set, so that the stage can be set for innovative breakthroughs. Additionally, we must recognize, value and nurture the kind of ingenuity that can yield innovative approaches to research and development--a particular strength of the Japanese--to prevent the hollowing of our own industrial base as more and more development takes place overseas. However, it is difficult to gain such practical skills through traditional university education, which emphasizes theory. Consequently, our schools have yet to systematize an academic program that can effectively train people in IT, which continues its rapid evolution. As a result, the general feeling within Japanese industry is that our IT human resources are of insufficient quality. I chair the Nippon Keidanren Subcommittee on Development of Advanced Human Resources in Information and Communications Through the Dissemination and Promotion of Practical IT Training in Higher Education. This subcommittee is engaged in various activities designed to nurture high-level expertise in information and telecommunications. Our efforts include a business-academic partnership to enhance the level of practical instruction by having businesses send their engineers to teach at universities. NTT DATA, in addition supporting programs such as this, will continue its efforts to develop IT professionals who can fortify Japan's competitiveness and contribute to society.
If IT is to function as the key supporting infrastructure of our industrial state, we will need IT professionals who can support that infrastructure. Given the crucial role that IT professionals play in our society, I sincerely hope our young people will recognize the exciting future that lies in store for the IT industry. We must encourage them to meet the challenge.
