Too many technology-related mentoring programs are focusing on turning students into "little clones" of IT staff by teaching them all the workers' daily routines and tasks. Far more effective, Thibodeaux said, is conveying to students why employees are passionate about the IT industry.

"Kids don't want to know what you do," Thibodeaux said. "They want to know why you love what we do."

To help interest more young people in technology, CompTIA has turned to The New York Academy of Sciences and Spark Chicago to provide long-term, sustainable IT industry role models for students, according to Charles Eaton, CEO of CompTIA's philanthropic arm, the Creating IT Futures Foundation.

In addition, Eaton said the Next Up program will work with programs such as Northwestern University's FUSE to develop both in-school and out-of-school curriculum and projects around emerging technologies such as 3-D printing and household applications of computer-aided design (CAD).

And to attract more young women into technology, the Creating IT Futures Foundation plans to work more closely with TechGirlz around its TechShopz in a Box program, which Eaton said are activities and workshops delivered by IT services professionals to middle school girls. 

Ken Doerbecker, president and CEO of Wexford, Pa.-based Perfection Services, said coding-related programs are pervasive, but sees very little education around IT hardware anymore.

"The nuts and bolts of making a computer network work is becoming a lost art," Doerbecker said.

Perfection Services prefers to hire self-taught employees who can adjust on the fly and get up-to-speed on the latest IT trends and development without any formal training or education.

"We don't put a lot of faith in degrees, to be honest," Doerbecker said.