Finishing College with Employable Skills

Question

Last week, 4 students from another college approached me with a scenario. They have a year of college left in them. That means, they will be occupied with all sorts of final year things that may and most possibly help with their career.

Now, they want me to help them earn some skills. Something that might help them land some kind of employment. I have seen other posts on the site about the languages taught in the beginning and so on, but these students are not exactly beginners. They have finished 6 semesters and have a half baked idea and some exposure to languages such as C, C++ and Java, and may be even some dot net and Linux. However, nothing is employment worthy.

So, now, I have some decision making to do. What do you ask them (and of course, guide them) to learn? Here are my options (and feel free add yours)

1. Essential Web - HTML, CSS, Javascript and jQuery. - This is something that is a basic requirement for a lot of jobs where I live. I also believe this is something anybody can learn, even if they are short on time.
2. Java (with Android) - Learn to build an app. Android is pretty straight forward, and does not really require a thorough knowledge of Java itself.
3. Dot Net with C# - Tougher to learn, they may just run away with the complexity involved.

So, I am partial to Essential Web because of the simplicity involved both in terms of time, and also cost. A very basic laptop (perhaps even a used one) is good enough to get them started.

Still, what should I do?

Answer 1

My opinion is that Essential Web is the way to go in this specific situation.

---

1. It is clearly employable.

I'm inferring from the post that at least one of the motivations of the students in question is to be as employable as possible. When I look at the 3 options presented, I feel like Essential Web is the most generally employable. Also, while I haven't looked at the data, I would hazard a guess that web development is very safely high in demand in the current job market (assuming we are talking about North America).

2. Of the 3, it is most likely the fastest to get something tangibly impressive running.

Android development and (though less so) .NET require a fair bit of proprietary setup. For Essential Web, all you actually need is a text editor and a web browser, both things that these students likely have and understand. I feel like Essential Web is the fastest to dive straight into learning the concepts and making something that they can be proud of, and add to their githubs/portfolios.

3. There is previous familiarity.

It is incredibly likely that these students have used the web their entire lives. They likely know at least a few of the basic concepts without even realising it. For someone brand new to all 3, I think the familiarity with Essential Web in particular will really help them to grasp the new, more advanced topics more quickly.

---

Of course, this is based off of previous comments that they don't really have a previous passion and the time is ticking. In this scenario, I would want to give them the fastest and easiest to teach option that is employable to boot. If time was not a factor, my approach would really be to throw them a few introductions to a few popular technologies and see which one they are most partial to. As it stands in this circumstance though, my opinion is that Essential Web is the best option.

Answer 2

The kinds of things suggested in your question and many similar things won't help them. Learning some other "tool" or "language" or "technique" at a beginners level will still leave them with just a bunch of tools they don't really know how to use.

Instead give them a project - preferably a hard project - in which they can use what they have learned, but which also likely forces them to learn at least one new thing. Moreover, if their goal is employment, make it a team project so that they get the experience of working closely with others.

If you can make it a real project, not just an academic exercise, all the better.

Also, make them use some proven methodology, not just hack together a solution. My suggestion would be Extreme Programming, since it is completely defined and has good personal practices within it. It would give them good guidance for a first such project. Scrum, being a bit more general might leave them without the guidance they need, hour to hour.

Answer 3

Look at their skills, look at their passion.

It they have passion for something, then they will do much better. This passion can not be based on, I think there is money in this.

• If their passion is Free Software, or systems administration: Then Gnu/Linux.

• If it is web design, aesthetics, user interaction: Then web design.

• If it is mobile gaming, or other mobile apps: Then Java/Android.

• Also consider Embedded systems, there are more programmers programming Embedded processors, than servers + desktops + probably mobile.

Functional programming will be a big thing in the future, and teaches a lot of useful skills.

I like couchdb: functional, web, javascript, database, no-sql.

Then combine passion with a projects (see @Buffy's answer).

---

If leaning Object orientated, then I believe that learning Eiffel first is quicker. [This is not based on my teaching experience, it is based on a claim of Bertren Myers. Any my experience as a programmer. When I learnt Eiffel I realised that I did not know C++, then I knew C++.]

Answer 4

Off course it is a broad question and depends totally on the:

1. Student's Interest
2. Student's Aptitude
3. Checking whether that tool/domain has some scope - Say someone wants to work in VB, then I would have really think about it. This survey can serve as a good measure but a word of precaution is needed to check the demography of participants to compare it with your local market as well.

Now I would talk on general terms, @Buffy has a good idea of giving them projects. I like it but I would like to add little bit more: A complete/successful project doesn't always guarantee that a student has covered all the basics of even OOP (assuming he develops project in an OO language/paradigm) or SQL, etc. (I am coming from a Pakistani background where OOP and SQL still have lion's share in market, this suggestion may vary depending upon the industry you have)

I think if I were to give any student a suggestion, it would be to firstly cover OOP and SQL properly and then complement it by project

I agree that now SW industry has much more technologies and not everyone gets away with such a luck, but my experience still tells me that OOP/basic algorithm development and SQL are almost necessary for lot of jobs. So my conclusion is, both OOP, SQL, etc. (Theory) and Project (Practical) are necessary for you even if you are Final year student and water has reached near your throat.

P.S: @ctrl-alt-delor's answer has a detailed analysis of technologies road-maps and I would like to refer to it for choosing a specific tool(s).

Answer 5

1. Essential Web - HTML, CSS, Javascript and jQuery. - This is something that is a basic requirement for a lot of jobs where I live. I also believe this is something anybody can learn, even if they are short on time.
2. Java (with Android) - Learn to build an app. Android is pretty straight forward, and does not really require a thorough knowledge of Java itself.
3. C # with Dot Net - Tougher to learn, they may just run away with the complexity involved.

On the basis of my industry experience, which includes all of the above, I opine that option 3 is the easiest, not the hardest. This comes with the caveat that by "C# with Dot Net" (which I think should really be ".Net with C#") you may actually mean a set of specific APIs which are hard to learn.

However, there is another consideration. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. There are enough subtopics of web security to make an entire course; but if you take the .Net/C# option then there are ways to steer it which will support an accompanying project which isn't a Swiss cheese of security holes. E,g, the accompanying project goal could be a WPF application which consumes a third party public REST service, and the relevant security issues will come up in relation to the (hopefully securely designed and implemented) third party service.

Answer 6

tl;dr: Encourage them to start putting together their own personal portfolio webpages.

Tell them to create a webpage that showcases projects they've worked on. Don't know how to create a webpage? Now is a perfect time to learn!

Then build from there. Was there a project they were particularly interested in? Expand on that, make improvements, make it interesting for real people to use, then put a link to it on their portfolio. Is there a topic they'd like to learn more about? Great, use that as an excuse to add a project to your portfolio webpage.

If they only have a year of school left, then they shouldn't need a lot of hands-on help from you. You shouldn't be the one dictating what they explore or learn more about. They should.

Creating a portfolio webpage is helpful for two reasons:

• It gives you an excuse to explore various topics. "I want to create project xyz using machine learning" is a lot easier than "I want to learn more about machine learning."
• It gives you something to put on your resume. "I created project xyz using Android, here is a link to download the app" is a lot more convincing than "I learned about Android."