The need to launch IT training @ University v2.0

http://management.silicon.com/careers/0,39024671,39506212,00.htm

IT graduates are leaving UK universities without the business and technical competencies that employers need, according to silicon.com’s CIO Jury.

The majority of the jury said they believe universities are not producing IT graduates with the right skills for their businesses – bad news for graduates competing for the diminishing number of IT jobs.

Only four of the 12 IT chiefs said they feel tech graduates are finishing university with the expertise their companies are looking for.

An interesting article, one of the things I was saying the other day to a colleague was that I wonder if univeristies could not do more, by aligning their courses in line more with support functions? By that I mean my IT course comprised of IT process and theory, about java programming, flash design and information systems, but there was not much on this ITIL thing, on helpdesk or the ‘basics’, being on call, that there might be a reason that an enterprise runs on legacy systems. It’s something I’d love  to see going forward, how cool would it be as a student if you could opt in to do oncall for the university? Do helpdesk for a month? Even if the oncall was staged, come on site and re-install Windows or Solaris for example, understanding, going through an incident, resolving it and writing a report might add invaluable experience in preparation for your first role. It might not be for everyone, but I wonder if students might not enjoy the concept?  Could you offer the opportunity to link your university course with an industry approved certification one which might be more affordable or educational?  An ECP (Educationally certified person) rather than a MCP?

Some example topics to cover:

• ITIL – could a student come out with ITIL certification?
• On call
• Rapid application development
• Economics of not investing in IT
• Blades vs Servers
• Unified fabrics and virtualization
• Economics of investing in IT
• Economics and not of green IT – is green IT the way forward?
• The data center – how important it is – the air flow, the power etc
• The organization – How it all fits together
• Cloud computer
• Hardware/software certification – maybe not official, but approved concepts, what RAID is, what industry best practice is, basics, swapping a power supply/replacing a system board with credit/cerfication?

Just think of the possibilities of fresh ideas, not only from those working in the industry, but of those that haven’t got the emotional or organizational baggage in solving issues.

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