The Robinson College has partnered with United Parcel Service (UPS), the University System of Georgia and Kennesaw State University to develop and teach a web development curriculum to students trained to become the shipping company's future web software developers. Governor Roy Barnes has committed more than $800,000 through the University System of Georgia's Intellectual Capital Partnership Program (ICAPP) initiative for the program and UPS is committing approximately $250,000 of in-kind support, including classroom facilities at their new high-tech facility in Roswell.

ICAPP is the economic development program of the University System of Georgia. ICAPPAdvantage (one of ICAPP's five programs) is a direct economic development incentive that helps companies meet immediate human resources needs.

Through ICAPP Advantage, faculty from the Robinson College's Department of Computer Information Systems and Kennesaw State University began working together recently to develop courses specifically tailored to meet the human resources needs at UPS's e-Solutions Center in the North Atlanta suburb of Roswell. At the recently constructed $40 million center, UPS is assembling teams from information technology, marketing, communications and other business functions with the purpose of bringing software products and solutions to market faster than ever before. UPS employs approximately 60 people at the complex and plans to hire more than 100 more in 2001. The company initially looked at the ICAAP Advantage program as a means of filling the gap for IT workers at the Roswell facility.

"Given the hot job market for IT professionals in the Atlanta area, it would be very difficult to hire 100 new web developers without some creative way of developing the staff," said Ephraim McLean, director of the project for the Robinson College and George E. Smith Eminent Scholar.

With consultation from faculty in the Robinson College, UPS selected 19 students from some 600 applicants nationwide for the program's initial offering in MayThe intensive program will include 16 degree-credit courses in two tracks, one for web content developers (I I weeks) and one for web software developers (21 weeks). The curriculum is a combination of existing courses and courses specially tailored to the needs of UPS. Both tracks are designed to satisfy the requirements for an undergraduate upper-division major in computer information systems in less than half a year All courses are offered for twoand-a-half hours a day, five days a week, for three weeks. Students need only take an additional 10 to 14 courses to earn an undergraduate degree, assuming that they have taken roughly two years of successful undergraduate work prior to entering the program.

To accommodate the new courses, additional faculty will be hired by the College's Department of Computer Information Systems. Experienced faculty who have expertise in web development will teach the classes at the UPS facility, along with newly recruited faculty, who also will help existing faculty with their current work load.

For the first offering of the program, UPS is making its training faculty in Roswell available as an in-kind contribution. A possible second offering in January, contingent upon demand and renewed funding, will be taught at the university's Alpharetta campus, where one existing classroom will be converted into a web development facility.

FUELING GEORGIA'S HIGH-TECH ECONOMY

Each graduate will be offered a job at UPS. Web content developers may expect an annual salary of $49,200, while web software developers will be paid an average starting salary of $56,850.The first annual payroll payments to the 19 graduates are estimated to be more than $1.3 million, with cumulative payments over five years totaling more than $7 million.

Governor Barnes is a strong supporter of the ICAPP program, which accelerates the infusion of well-paid "knowledge workers" into Georgia's economy. "UPS can select employees with the values and attitudes it wants, while ICAPP provides the needed technical expertise through Georgia State and Kennesaw State," he stated. ICAPP Advantage nets a greater than 15:1 return on the state's investment.

By Bruce D. Brooks