Outsourcing Java Projects to Students

This morning I read a thought provoking editorial in the JDJ: Digital Edition titled Outsourcing to Students. While searching through computer science classes at various colleges, Yakov Fain found the same thing I have: it appears that very little Java is taught at the undergrad level.

Mr. Fain talks about outsourcing projects to college students as opposed to outsourcing to developing countries. I like that idea, but not for the reason you might suspect. As someone who is (will be) looking for that next generation of developer, I want to see more Java classes being taught at the colleges in my area so that I will have a larger pool of developers to choose from. Too, it would be fun to have a group of college students work on one of my programming projects as part of their course work...or even have some computer science students co-op with my company.

Even more telling on the issue of Java education is the feedback I get from articles I've written. Most inquires, questions, comments, etc. come from developers beyond the US border. I'm not totally sure what that says. Admittedly my articles tend to tackle easier development issues. But, I don't think the US is so far ahead in Java programming that the solutions I write about are not germane. Rather I think other countries are ahead of America...especially on Java development that extends beyond websites into the enterprise. The issue that may ultimately drive companies to offshore outsourcing may be one of expertise rather than cost.

Prove me wrong, if your college is teaching Java courses and training the future for a career in IT, let me know. If your company is doing enterprise Java development (not necessarily EJB) let me know that too.

Rick.