Motivation for continuous software engineering expertise development through lifelong learning

Abstract

<p>It is important for software developers to keep up with technology, be able to adapt, learn new things to be competitive in the labour market, and be exposed to new and different things to avoid getting stuck in their old roles. This requires a long-term commitment to lifelong learning from those in working life in order to extend their software engineering skills. However, there is no information on how much time software developers spend on developing and maintaining their skills within a year. We have carried out an industry survey in Finland to assess, among other things, how much time software developers dedicate to professional development activities over one year. The survey had 88 respondents, all of them involved in software development within their own organization. The results show that surprisingly few participated in any lifelong learning activities or have completed professional certifications at all. This was unexpected given the importance of such education and certifications for software engineers. In this study, we reflect on the industry survey results through a discussion on the experience of organizing lifelong learning training in the field of IT sector at the University of Turku, Finland. Lifelong learning courses must be independent of time and place and be easily adaptable. Typically, the basic courses of university degree education are not directly suitable for lifelong learning students and they especially expect direct sector-specific relevance to working life in course content. The role of universities and higher education institutions in lifelong learning for software engineers should be strengthened. Universities should invest not only in the development of basic education but also in lifelong learning training and provide working people with multidisciplinary views and wide-ranging information on new topics. Learning does not stop after graduation, and therefore, more attention should be paid to this issue also during basic software engineering studies.</p>