| ISMagazine.com | Government Direction |
October, 1999 |
IT Leaders Urge President to Support Technology Training
Technology Training Association, Intel, Knowledge Universe, Lucent, MCI WorldCom, MicroAge, Microsoft, Novell, Sabre, Software & Information Industry Association, Sylvan Prometric, and Texas Instruments.
The letter followed a Capitol Hill meeting between members of the Technology Training Tax Credit Coalition (TTTCC), five senior Administration officials, and Senate staffers. The proposal would provide tax credits of 25% of training costs leading to IT certifications. Earlier this year, CompTIA and ITTA formed the TTTCC to advance bipartisan legislation, which now has nearly 40 House and Senate cosponsors.
Coalition leaders urged the Administration to include the technology training tax credit in the President's counteroffer to the pending congressional tax package. "The Administration is going to have their economists look at it and we're hopeful it will be in the President's tax proposal," noted CompTIA Public Policy Director Bruce N. Hahn. TTTCC is asking President Clinton to consider the benefits. Market-based incentives will help companies afford more IT training; prepare
our workforce for the technology challenges of the 21st Century; enable students, displaced workers, and others go into rewarding high-technology careers; and generate millions of dollars of new tax revenue.
During the recent National High Technology Summit on Capitol Hill, almost every speaker (from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates) pointed to the critical shortage and the challenges in hiring, training and retaining workers. "Everyone realizes we have a critical shortage of IT skilled workers. There is no business, organization or government office that is immune to this shortage," said Peter Squier, Information Technology Training Association President and TTTCC Co-chair. "We all depend on employees or contractors with the IT skills required to maintain, upgrade, and repair our computer systems."
The explosive growth rate of the economy combined with the continuous training required to keep pace with rapid changes in technology is outpacing the large and growing IT training investment. According to several reports, there are over 350,000 unfilled IT skilled jobs. Estimates show this shortage increasing by 130,000 annually through 2008.
"The fate of this years federal tax bill will likely be decided in the next month," said Alan Hald, TTTCC Co-chair and the cofounder of MicroAge. "Every company that uses IT to enhance productivity, and workers who want additional IT training to improve their career, should contact President Clinton and legislators now to encourage support for this important measure." More information about the technology training tax credit, including a sample letter, and links to the White House and federal legislators can be found on TTTCC's Web site: http://www.techcoalition.org.