InformationWeek

Daley: Some people call it a shortage, which would imply a problem. Others would say it's an opportunity. There's no question that there's a tremendous need out there. All you have to do is look at the papers on a given Sunday or listen to business people. So, again, shortage implies problem. There's a need and therefore an opportunity.

InformationWeek: Could this need affect the U.S. economy long-term?

Daley: If you don't have people properly trained for the jobs of the future, that's going to impact on our economy. The goal of all of us--industry, government--is to try to create an atmosphere, create opportunities for the jobs of the future [and] to have people to fill them. There's no question that if this need was not addressed, it would have a sizable impact on our economy, because the whole information technologies beast is playing such a tremendous part in our economic explosion. It would definitely have an affect, and a substantial one, in the long term.

InformationWeek: How involved should the government be in trying to solve the shortage problem in the private sector?

Daley: One of the hallmarks of this administration has been a serious reaching out to the private sector in partnership. This is a good example. We've got to listen to industry and get from them a sense of what we can do to help them address it. I know government can't solve it alone, and I also know industry can't do it alone. We have to try to do this as a partnership. And we've been doing that over the last two years.

InformationWeek: How would you characterize the partnership?

Daley: There are certain programs that the government has, [such as] grant programs from the Labor Department and our encouraging educational institutions in partnering with industry. We can encourage the educational community to listen to industry, to be more responsive to their needs. [Otherwise,] the institutions aren't going to develop the curriculums and the workers that industry needs.

InformationWeek: Is the need for IT workers something that market forces will take care of, or are there inherent infrastructure problems?

Daley: I'm a big believer that the market does take care of most problems. But much of our educational system is not producing the highly trained individuals to do the jobs of the future. The mistake of five, 10 years ago, was that a lot of people in academia didn't see what was going on in the business world, the dramatic changes that were taking place that were going to necessitate skilled people. I don't think it was necessarily industry's job to be pushing the educational system. The educational systems and government--federal, state, and local--should have seen what was going on in their communities and where the needs were going to be, and should have responded to that.

InformationWeek: Is there something that IT executives can do in terms of reaching out, either to the government or to the educational community?

Daley: IT executives can work with the high schools and junior colleges, volunteer to help those schools, because they have gaps in trained teachers in computer science and in math. They can reach out and try to give some of their expertise back to these schools. Cisco, for example, is helping to train kids in high school because they see a need for their company and obviously it's good for them as they try [to develop] their products. But if every company with an IT interest did that, this shortage or need would probably be a hell of a lot less.

InformationWeek: Part of the problem employers face is that expertise changes so fast. Companies find it almost impossible to keep up.

Daley: You bring up the heart of the problem for government. This is moving so quickly, all the IT issues, and government is structured in a way that it can't respond quickly. It's putting enormous strain on government and how quickly we can respond to any of these issues, the Internet tax issue and all the other issues that come from the explosion of E-commerce--worker shortage, worker needs.

InformationWeek: Some companies are reluctant to train IT workers in additional technologies because they know once workers get those skills they're more marketable and probably will get picked up.

Daley: You think it's bad in the private sector, what do you think it's like in government to keep people? This department alone spends $700 million a year on information systems. This was a department that didn't even have a CIO until a year ago. It's hard to attract people. We obviously can't pay anywhere near the market rates that people are going for out there, for the simplest tasks.

InformationWeek: Do you get involved in those issues in terms of IT?

Daley: When I got here and found out there wasn't a CIO, I thought it was a little crazy. How do you run a department and spend $700 million a year and not have a chief information officer? But it took us a year to find the right person and attract somebody from the private sector to come in.

InformationWeek: Would you have any advice for CIOs on what they should do in terms of trying to attract or retain the best IT talent?