Mesa creates new IT Institute for everything “internet”

Sydney Ritter
MesaCC Legend

Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) is announcing the new Information Technology Institute at Mesa to meet the emerging technological workforce’s demand for talent in areas of app development. According to a press releases posted by Mesa Community College (MCC) Dr. Maria Harper-Marinick, MCCCD Chancellor, said that the institute “will bridge the IT employability gap with a new Information Technology Institute” along with providing “high-tech skills for our students to meaningfully connect with future employers and better compete in today’s modern economy for the higher-level, higher-wage IT vacancies.”

Situating MCC as the hub of the Institute is strategically aligned with the City of Mesa’s vision to revitalize West Mesa and will further enable MCCCD to reduce the job gaps in the IT sector.
According to the Chair of the Business and Informations Systems at MCC, Linda Collins, students will choose courses of study from a diverse menu based on high demand skills such as app development with Apple’s swift/Xcode, Blockchain, SQL/SQL Server, software development, JAVA, project management, technical support, Red Hat Linux, Oracle, customer service, software engineering, Microsoft C# and .NET Programming.

The IT Institute will also address employer skill gaps with quality degrees and certificates related to the highest demand jobs, accelerate workforce innovation and responsiveness, increase workforce training and customized solutions for business government and industry, and increase programmatic articulation agreements and career pathways with secondary schools to increase the number of students continuing with MCCCD.

“To provide valuable learning, on-the-job experiences, apprenticeships, internships, and capstone projects will be part of the coursework to benefit both the local community and the students’ skills. Industry recognized micro-credentials will be issued allowing students to immediately demonstrate competencies to employers as they are earned,” said Collins. As a vital component of the City of Mesa’s Innovation District, MCCCD’s IT Institute will operate out of the college’s Downtown Center, 145 N. Centennial Way, Mesa beginning fall of 2018, until a permanent facility is identified.

According to the MCC press release, the greater Phoenix area is “expecting to add 20,000+ IT jobs in the next decade with an additional 10,000 IT jobs over the next six years in juts Mesa Community College service area alone, the need for a well-equipped technology workforce is paramount.” “Despite great prospects, challenges remain for IT in greater Phoenix. The region offers a strong entry-level labor base, but lacks a workforce with higher-level IT competencies, said Collins. “MCC’s IT Institute will focus on entry- and mid-level career readiness for the IT sector, including courses to up-skill incumbent workers.

  • Sydney Ritter

    Sydney Ritter is the former Managing Editor at the Mesa Legend and a communications major at Arizona State University. She has been working for the Legend since 2016 as a reporter before taking over as News Editor and has spent her last two years as the Managing Editor.

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