How digital learning helps further specialized, in-demand careers

According to data from Indeed, some of the top in-demand careers of 2021 revolve around healthcare, construction and information technology — trends which come as no surprise on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Career opportunities are improving since the beginning of the pandemic and people are evaluating new career options. Many look to earn academic credentials to amplify their current careers or to do a deep-dive into another career.

At North Carolina State University, online programs are helping students and professionals refine their skills and apply them to these specialized, in-demand career paths.

In the Triangle in particular, careers in geographic information systems, or GIS, are one of the most sought-after on the market.

"GIS has always been popular, but it's a growing field now that more people are understanding what it is and how it can help them. One of the great things about it is that it's really pervasive across all kinds of different sectors of society, from public health and epidemiology to the energy sector to real estate and marketing," said Eric Money, associate director of professional education and associate teaching professor in N.C. State's College of Natural Resources. "Now, companies like Amazon and Google are using GIS as well. More positions are becoming available, and since it can be integrated into a number of industries, there's a broad appeal for students and professionals."

So, what exactly is GIS?

A geographic information system is a system that creates, manages, analyzes and maps all different types of data. In doing so, the system allows people to identify and interpret patterns, monitor changes, forecast trends and much more. In practice, this could be targeting customers for specific marketing, visualizing environmental trends in a specific area or tracking disease outbreaks.

Laurel Krynock, a 2020 graduate of N.C. State's Master of Geospatial Information Science and Technology online program, is already putting her degree to good use — and the remote nature of the program helped her earn the degree while she was balancing childcare and a career change.

"When I was interested in reentering the workforce, I knew I had been out of that world for a while, and I needed to catch up on my skills and knowledge in that area. I ended up choosing the GIST program because of the flexibility it allowed, and I didn't have to worry about commuting to campus or the added expenses that come along with that," said Krynock.

Krynock already had a degree and work experience in environmental engineering. Since she was familiar with GIS through her past and knew it was a growing area, she decided to pursue a degree.

The online graduate program at N.C. State offered practical, hands-on experience with GIS software and companies that prepared Krynock and her classmates for their future careers.

"It's a niche program, but it's becoming very popular — and a large part of that is because it's integrated into all different kinds of industries and government. For me personally, the program was so well done in terms of giving students real-world opportunities on real-world projects.

"It's a technological field, so we needed a lot of various software and computing resources, and having all of that accessible was instrumental in learning and developing the GIS skills that employers are looking for," said Krynock.

"The program does a good job of exposing you to all of these different skill sets that you need to be successful. For me, I just started a position over the summer here at N.C. State, and I can confidently say that I use a lot of what I learned in the program — I even sometimes go back and refer to some of the class notes and lessons."

To complete the GIST master's program, students are required to work with a community partner to complete a final project. For her project, Krynock worked with a local nonprofit. Not only did this experience improve her practical skills, but it also opened up networking opportunities.

In maintaining high standards for the GIST master's and making things like this possible, the program took advantage of resources available at N.C. State to innovate and improve the program so that students and instructors have the best experience possible.

"N.C. State offers a tremendous amount of invaluable support to online programs — not only marketing support, but also tools and technologies that help us deliver online content, as well as workshops for faculty," said Money. "I've been in academia for quite a while now, and I can't think of an equivalent entity to pool resources that compares to what we have available for N.C. State online programs."