Tech Puts GIS Jobs on the Map
Cypress College can’t train enough people to fill the job openings, and it can’t find enough instructors to teach the subject, either.
The field of geographic information systems--using computers to combine sophisticated data with layers of colorful maps--is sizzling on university campuses. From community colleges to graduate studies, GIS programs are rapidly expanding as the subject spreads through academic departments and into government and industry, from police departments and municipal governments to anthropologists and salespeople, to anyone who needs to combine location with statistics. Wherever a map was useful before, you can find GIS.
“It seems very hot,” said John Wilson, chairman of USC’s geography department. “We know that in terms of students getting jobs and the difficult time trying to hire staff for our research lab.”
When Wilson needed to hire a technician to oversee programs at USC’s new GIS lab, he was forced to keep raising the salary and lowering the experience required of job candidates. He offered the position to a woman with a master’s degree and just 10 months’ experience. The salary was $60,000 a year.
“She turned us down,” he said. “That wasn’t enough.”
The growth in GIS has been nearly as explosive as that of the stock market. Seven years ago, 2,000 people attended the annual users conference put on by Redlands-based Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc., the world’s largest GIS software company. More than five times that many are expected at this year’s gathering in San Diego.
As the industry has grown, so has the number of colleges teaching the subject. “It’s the job market that has been driving the growth,” said Michael Phoenix, Environmental Systems’ manager of university services. “Students hear about jobs out there and pressure faculty to put programs in place.”
Five years ago, about 10 community colleges across the country and about 350 four-year schools were teaching GIS, Phoenix said. Today, it’s taught at more than 475 community colleges and 1,100 four-year schools.
Environmental Systems estimates that an additional 50,000 to 75,000 people are using GIS annually, though colleges and universities are training only about half that many.
The shortfall has created a classic supply-and-demand problem. Cypress College, for example, gets more calls for the $17-an-hour technicians its professional program turns out than it can supply.
Cypress, where GIS became part of the curriculum in 1997, has been a leader in bringing GIS to the classroom.
The school received an $800,000 grant to train secondary and college teachers nationwide in GIS during two-week summer courses. When the second round is finished this year, 105 teachers will be able to take it into the classroom.
Marshall Gartenlaub, then director of economic development for the North Orange County Community College District, which includes Cypress, was instrumental in getting the funding. “It was obvious at the time we started, there were 40,000 or 50,000 jobs looking for people,” he said. “That was my position: to train the faculty to create the classroom to train the employees.”
Saddleback College in Mission Viejo started a professional certificate program last fall that’s gaining in popularity.
Many students taking GIS--most in some programs--are already employed and are hoping the new skill will help them advance with their companies or find a better job somewhere else.
San Diego State finds that once graduate students learn the technology, about a quarter of them drop out of college to use it on the job.
Suzuki sent an employee who already had a master’s in business to Cal State Fullerton to learn GIS so he could figure out where to put sales and distribution offices.
“Most are not the 18-year-olds starting in college,” said Gail Hobbs, a geography professor at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, who, through the miracle of modern technology, is in charge of Cypress’ teacher-teaching grant.
GIS amounts to putting a map into a computer and being able to plot thousands of variables on layers of the map. A city planning department might pull up a map with streets marked on it, push a button to add sewage lines, push another button to add fire hydrants, push some other buttons to bring up the power poles, then bring up the telephone lines.
Police departments use it to study crime data. Sears uses it to route delivery trucks. Archeologists use it to mark layers of time and objects they find.
A Cypress College student helped on a project that tracked where grizzly bear cubs could be found in Yellowstone National Park.
The military has adopted GIS for its smart weapons. The Persian Gulf War has been called the first GIS war, with missiles using the new technology following map contours on their way to Baghdad.
But what has swollen the ranks of GIS students is the subject’s expansion beyond geography and urban planning and into political science, anthropology, business and other subjects where space or location are factors.
Cal State Fullerton’s marketing students, for example, will study GIS. “It’s becoming a must,” said Irene Lange, chairwoman of the school’s marketing department.
Michael Goodchild, a UC Santa Barbara professor and leading GIS expert, said he believes the subject soon will be taught in elementary schools.
“I think it’s a convergence of interest on the parts of schools and the technology getting simpler,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything inherent in GIS you can’t teach at a very early level.”
