The European Conference on Education 2021: Official Conference Proceedings

Abstract

The shortage of highly-skilled ICT (information and communications technology) workers remains a serious and global concern. This paper reports on how to attract more computer science majors to job fields within ICT that are especially critical to economic growth, rather than how to solve the overall shortage. A qualitative preliminary study found that certain software-related aspects might play an important role when picking a job field. In order to generalize and validate these findings an online survey based on the Social Cognitive Career Theory was conducted. The data were analyzed and show that the software used in a prospective job does in fact have a positive influence on computer science majors' career choice when a technical usage of the software is pursued. A direct correlation exists between usage frequency of a software product and the willingness to take on a job in which the software is used. A modern user interface is an advantage when attracting computer science majors to specific job fields but other characteristics such as good functionalities and ease of learning seem to affect career choice much more. Further research will be required to determine which characteristics of a software are decisive.