Assessing the Benefit of In-House Work Experience for University Students

The Department of Management Studies, (DOMS) has had a Computer Laboratory for a decade. DOMS IT environment has become increasingly complex. From having less than 20 standalone PCs and workstations in 1991, the Lab evolved to have responsibility for a departmental network of roughly 100 computers by 1999. This network is a subnet on the Campus WAN. Further, the Lab staff of 1996, undertook to network the entire Faculty of Social Sciences. Grossly understaffed, with only a Computer Lab Manager and one full-time Computer Lab Technician to serve a minimum of 3,000 students, 50 academic and administrative staff members; student computer lab technicians (LTs) have been relied on over the years, to research, install, configure, design, build, repair and maintain computers and network infrastructure. The increasing dependence of staff and students on computer technology has increased the demands made on LTs. LTs have benefited by effectively serving as apprentices for a range of IT position...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2000
• Where: SIGUCCS
• Authors: Karen Shackleford
• Keywords: Computer, Computer Lab Technicians, Computer Labs, Information Management, SIGUCCS 2000