Many studies support the important role that two and four-year college programs can play in certification training and as a gateway to the four-year IT degree. In an effort to determine if one Florida Panhandle community college was delivering its intended IT education goals and meeting the needs of local employers, the researchers performed five comparative analyses that stemmed from the overarching research question, “How do IT program learning outcomes compare to the requirements of IT job postings as well as to IT student and faculty perceptions of what is learned and what is taught?” The results of this study, when contextualized with extant literature, suggest that schools are challenged in aligning curricula with IT employers needs especially in clarifying the value of certifications and obtaining meaningful experiential learning opportunities for students as they manage their education and career pathways.ye
