University of Telecommunications Leipzig

Published on 12-Nov-2012

"We now see patterns in how technology companies hire: what skills they need, which new methodologies are being used and which technologies our students need to be familiar with. This insight helps students choose academic paths with jobs at the end, which makes us a more competitive institution." - Dr. Frank Bensberg, Senior Expert HR Development, HfTL

Customer:
University of Telecommunications Leipzig

Industry:
Education

Deployment country:
Germany

Solution:
Enterprise Content Management, Predictive Analytics, Smarter Planet

Smarter Planet:
Smarter Cities, Smarter Education

Overview

Founded in 1991, the University of Telecommunications Leipzig, or Hochschule für Telekommunikation Leipzig (HfTL), is a privately held university of applied sciences sponsored by Deutsche Telekom. The university has more than 750 students and focuses on technical courses such as communications, computer science, communications engineering and business information systems.

Business need:
Germany boasts one of the largest information and communications technology (ICT) industries in the world, and it faces a skilled labor shortage that puts well-trained technical workers in high demand. For the University of Telecommunications Leipzig, the labor shortage is an opportunity to increase job placement rates for its graduates, boosting its own competitiveness. But keeping pace with the changing ICT industry is a challenge because today’s desirable skills can be obsolete tomorrow. The university needed insight into hiring trends so it could align its curriculum with employers’ needs.

Solution:
University of Telecommunications Leipzig uses natural language processing to decipher the flux of job requirements issued by employers. The analytics solution crawls through online job postings, analyzing the unstructured data to provide a perspective on the job market, enabling the university to monitor emerging trends. One of their first discoveries was that the demand for electrical and communications engineering degrees had waned, shifting toward business administration and informatics. The university launched new programs designed to help students take advantage of the emerging niche.

Benefits:
Gained the ability to respond quickly and cost-effectively to changing industry needs, launching a new course in 2.5 months instead of 12 months, a 76 percent improvement Increased demand for new courses in business information systems to 300 percent of the current capacity, demonstrating the marketplace’s need and the university’s competitiveness Improved the employability of students by matching coursework to high-demand skills in the job market

Case Study

The Opportunity
Germany boasts one of the largest information and communications technology (ICT) industries in the world, and it faces a skilled labor shortage that puts well-trained technical workers in high demand. For the University of Telecommunications Leipzig, the labor shortage is an opportunity to increase job placement rates for its graduates, thereby boosting its own competitiveness. But keeping pace with the rapidly changing ICT industry is a challenge because today’s desirable skills can be obsolete tomorrow. The university needed unprecedented insight into hiring trends so that it could align its curriculum with employers’ needs.

What Makes It Smarter
University of Telecommunications Leipzig uses sophisticated natural language processing to decipher the constant flux of job requirements issued by employers. The powerful analytics solution crawls through thousands of online job postings, analyzing the unstructured data to provide an unprecedented perspective on the job market. With an aggregate view of employers’ requirements across the industry, the university can monitor emerging trends that are far from obvious to everyone else. One of the university’s first discoveries was that the demand for degrees in electrical and communications engineering had waned, shifting instead toward informatics, business administration and business informatics. The revelation prompted the university to shift its academic priorities and launch new programs designed to help students take advantage of the emerging niche.

Real Business Results
· Gained the ability to respond quickly and cost-effectively to changing industry needs, launching a new course in 2.5 months instead of 12 months, a 76 percent improvement
· Increased demand for new courses in business information systems to 300 percent of the current capacity, demonstrating the marketplace’s need and the university’s competitiveness
· Improved the employability of students by matching coursework to high-demand skills in the job market

Products and services used

IBM products and services that were used in this case study.

Software:
Content Analytics

Legal Information

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2012 IBM Corporation Software Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 Produced in the United States September 2012 IBM, the IBM logo and ibm.com are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be changed by IBM at any time. Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates. The performance data and client examples cited are presented for illustrative purposes only. Actual performance results may vary depending on specific configurations and operating conditions. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided.