IT training in need of a reboot

By ADAM GIFFORD

It was while working as an IT manager for services company gen-i that Patrick Dowling realised there was a serious disconnection between what the education system was producing and what industry needed.

The problem was with both private and polytechnic training courses and with university degrees.

"I employed a young guy with a computer sciences qualification, but then I discovered he couldn't fix a PC, he couldn't do low-level systems administration, simple user creation and some of the basic things," Dowling says.

"I found with a lot of the young ones, they didn't know how to do simple diagnostics if, for example, the network didn't work."

Dowling is trying to address the gap with a new training school, the first class of which kicks off on February 23.

Techtorium will offer a NZQA-approved and accredited diploma in PC engineering.

Students can elect to sit external exams, including the A+ hardware, Network+ and Internet+ certificates from CompTia and the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) qualification.

Dowling made his course longer and deeper than others on offer. It is 44 weeks, at least eight weeks longer than any other, with 1100 hours' contact time. Class size will be restricted to 20.

Over the four semesters, the course will cover PC hardware and software, networks, internet, and applications.

The cost, $19,700, includes all textbooks, course materials, internal and external exam fees, plus a computer.

"The course is aimed at taking kids out of school and training them to be decent engineers. This is vocational training," Dowling says.

"Because the course is longer, I will do everything a lot more in depth, so the kids should have a good practical idea of how to fix a PC, or be able to work out why an operating system is not operating properly."

Dowling says it is perfectly feasible to train someone to pass the A+ hardware competency test in 40 hours, "but if I teach you in 80 hours or 120 hours you will be better, because extra time allows for depth.

"The key thing for me is to make sure my course is more practical than others with more class time, so that my students can walk into places like gen-i and Axon and be effective in their first week."

Students will be asked to specify and construct their own computers, an exercise which will force them to analyse each choice.

"It means they have to go into things like what makes a good Bios, what makes some better than others, what sort of choices do they have with motherboards and video cards.

"For example, a lot of gamers want 256MB video cards. An office user or ordinary user would probably only need 64MB of video card RAM, so it it comes down to each component."

Dowling says after 20 years in IT, including stints at Air New Zealand and ASB Bank, he realised the training part was something he enjoyed the most.

He has a couple of other experienced consultants who will help with the course, and another trainer who will come on board when Techtorium is fully operational.

Dowling says companies that do entry-level training tend to employ relatively junior trainers, people with as little as three years in the industry, who are unable to deal with the increased complexity of the environment.

"It's the same as in any work environment. If you can work with someone very good, people who can explain and get across ideas, you will be better at the end of it."

Gen-i chief executive Garth Biggs says while he could not endorse an as yet unproven business, there was a need for solid entry-level training.

Gen-i owns training company Auldhouse, which offers computer application and technology training to companies and the technology industry.

"What Patrick is talking of doing is akin to apprenticeship education, which would be a good thing," Biggs says. "We got to a stage in the industry where we stopped training entry-level people and started poaching people from other employers."

Techtorium