Computer schooling slips

The computer industry is suffering from a continuing manpower crisis because of failings in education, according to Datamation magazine. Despite more than 46,000 new workers being trained every year, most of them churned out by private computer trade schools, there is a serious shortage of qualified personnel to fill the 39,300 entry-level job openings projected each year through 1990.

The demand for trained workers is so high, the magazine says, that qualified people can practically name their price. Logically, the stream of trainees, computer operators, programmers, and systems analysts being produced yearly should fill the gap. But when employers look for skills, the graduates of computer trade schools often get poor marks.

Computer education has grown so quickly -- some sectors more than 100 percent a year -- that there is no reliable national survey of the quantity, much less the quality, of the courses offered. It is the biggest market for continuing education, however, and what's more, it is an easy business to get into.