What happens when tech workers age?

Researchers awarded $3 million to study effect on IT sector

A researcher at the University of Western Ontario has been awarded $3 million to study the affect of an aging workforce on the information technology sector.

Julie McMullin, a sociology professor at the London, Ont.-based university, was awarded the grant — the largest the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) has ever handed out, according to the university — to lead a study called Workforce Aging in the New Economy.

The study will look at employment growth in the IT sector, aging in the workforce and employment changes in the new economy.

Specifically, the research will be examining:

•discrimination based on age, gender, race and ethnicity in the IT workforce;

•relationships between employers and employees in IT firms — are they good places to work?;

•specific skill sets required for IT work;

•the portion of older workers, women, ethnic and racial minority groups currently employed in the IT sector; and

•How IT employers deal with major events in employees’ lives, such as the school-to-work transition, marriage and parenting.

McMullin will be partnering with Human Resources Development Canada and SSHRC. The survey will start in January and will end with an international conference in 2006. It involves researchers at eight universities, along with various labour groups, technology organizations, government agencies and IT firms.

“By updating our learning and workforce practices, we will help Canadians seize opportunities around the globe,” said SSHRC president Marc Renaud. “These advances in education and training will not only pay great dividends for Canadian companies, but also for workers, who will be better prepared to face constantly changing realities at work and at home.”

SSHRC is the national funding agency for university-based research and graduate training in the social sciences and humanities. It was created as an independent body by Parliament in 1977.

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