Browsing by Subject "IT-ala"

Aims. The demand for IT-professionals is growing worldwide, and it is predicted that in Finland the need will multiply in upcoming years. One target group for marketing the field is career changers, whose transition to the field is eased by short programs that will promise them to get a new job quickly after the program. The aim of this study was to investigate work values of career changers who are aiming to occupy themselves in the IT-field. The work value categories used in this study were intrinsic, extrinsic, status and safety values. In previous research, intrinsic values have been found to be the most important for career changers. The results concerning gender differences are mixed. The associations between the value categories and the connection between the values fulfilled in previous job and the current work values were also studied. Because there is a lack of research on career changers in the IT-field, this study might provide valuable information for IT-employers and education providers on how to attract more people to work in the field. Methods. The participants (n=60) were currently studying in IT-related field in either university, college or short program in Finland, and they filled in a questionnaire in October-December 2018. The survey included 17 items for important values of future job in the IT-field and 17 items for fulfilled values in their previous job. The associations between different value categories were analysed with correlations and the gender differences were examined by using t-tests. Regression analyses were conducted in order to investigate whether fulfilled values in previous job predict future work values. Results and Conclusions. Intrinsic values were the most important for career changers, in other words, they especially valued interestingness, variability, and the possibilities to learn in their work. The results are in line with prior research. In this study it was founded that extrinsic and status values had a strong positive association, so people that had strong extrinsic values were likely to also have strong status values. No gender differences were detected in work values in this sample. Fulfilled safety values in previous job predicted current safety values negatively, therefore we can assume that the people whose safety values were not fulfilled in the previous job most likely value them more in the future job.