Presentation

We have experienced a great growth in IT recently. Nowadays, it is not only programmes that work on a computer, but we have a variety of devices, from enormous computers to the latest generation mobiles, and even web applications that do not physically reside in the device that uses them.  The computer science has been diversified to take care of the demands.  At present there are five major areas of expertise (http://computingcareers.acm.org/):

• Computing engineering
• Computing
• Information technology
• Software engineering
• Information systems

Here you will find these profiles in detail.  The degree in Computer Engineering and Information Technology is taught at the University Centre of Mérida.

What does the Computer Engineering in Information Technology study?

This is a competitive degree less oriented towards the traditional computer engineer and more towards the information technology in a corporate environment at all levels. The IT is responsible for the acquisition and transmission of information. For example, the development of applications for Internet and Web 2.0, web engineering and J2ee, multimedia technology virtualization, etc.

There is a great demand of qualified professionals in computers and in particular IT. This is illustrated for example in the last report of Infoemployment and Adecco (2011) that concludes with words that seem outstanding “Spectacular growth in 2011 of job opportunities regarding IT and Telecommunications, sectors that bring with the best increasing job rate in Spain and whose offer increased 50%, news published by El País in June of 2012 (IT professionals do not understand unemployment).

It is easy to understand the origin of the demand of professionals within the ICTs sector: the increased of webpages number, the increase of applications included in the same –google, tuenti, facebook, etc., and the increase of the number of devices from which we can use the aforementioned applications (latest generation mobiles, tablets, etc). Having thought about the job opportunities, we highlight:

• Software engineer
• Computer analyst-programmer Java & J2EE
• Web engineer
• Developer of internet and web 2.0 applications
• Developer of multimedia technology
• Expert in security in networks and Internet
• Developer of information systems
• Systems, serves, and virtualization systems administrator
• Developer of mobile devices applications
• Programmer of parallel, concurrent, distributed, and real-time systems
• Expert in analysis and information management
• Expert in computer  architectures, computational intelligence, and embedded computer systems