Call me a worrywart.

I'm troubled that reports about offshore outsourcing means many young people don't think they can make a career in IT and related fields, such as engineering. This attitude will damage our competitiveness as the world shrinks, making it more likely that more jobs requiring a high degree of tech know-how will end up overseas.

Enrollments are down at colleges offering many technical fields, and that troubles educators leading many of our top schools.

Recently, I caught up with Kristina Johnson, dean of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. She feels educators must and can do more to attract talented students to engineering and other technical careers. Globalization is a fact, and programs like Duke's are addressing that reality. Listen to what Johnson says.