Training hits right key

By ADAM GIFFORD

It training company Com Tech Education Services has shifted its Auckland training centre from Mt Wellington to the George Court Building in Karangahape Rd to cope with rapid growth.

While the refit and six-year lease cost $1 million, general manager Steve Ross says demand for high-quality IT training to meet a critical skill shortage will only increase.

The company's New Zealand operations grew 34 per cent last year, fuelled by its new NetWork programme which offers people the skills to switch careers and get an entry-level IT job.

It is aiming for 38 per cent growth this year.

So far 30 people have done the three-month, $11,000 NetWork course, which gives them IT skills training and internationally-recognised industry certification, and a similar number are still going through.

Com Tech guarantees to place graduates in jobs within three months or refund half their money. All graduates so far have won jobs with companies such as Wang, Telecom, Clear, Fujitsu, Axon, Minolta and Fletcher Challenge.

Mr Ross says candidates come from a wide range of backgrounds and occupations. The latest intake includes a former All Black who is trying to quit farming.

"We find most candidates are driven by lack of job satisfaction, not money. These people want to change their lives, so they invest three months with us," Mr Ross says.

That finding inspired television ads which will air next month. The ads, featuring Gnorman Gnome, are aimed at people with "zero" job satisfaction.

"There's a time in people's lives when they say, 'I have had enough.' It's a question of contacting those people at the right time," Mr Ross says.

"We'll run the ad in March when they've been back at work eight weeks, leading lives of quiet desperation."

He says many smart people are not challenged in their work, or are already doing IT-related tasks without being rewarded for it.

While students on the first NetWork courses were mainly men, the intake on the present course is 60 per cent female.

Mr Ross says many clients here and Australia are seeking more women for IT jobs.

"One insurance company is telling us they want females because they're good listeners. Their egos aren't as big and they do the service side well.

"The personal and social skills are as important as the technical skills for many employers. There's also parity of wages for females in IT."

While the largest identifiable group of students so far are males aged 25 to 34, the oldest student is a 52-year-old taxi driver.

"It's a seller's market. Age is no barrier. The machine does not know how old you are."

Mr Ross says Com Tech's other courses are also growing, with the February 17 release of the Windows 2000 operating system expected to boost demand further.

Other courses popular in New Zealand are in Checkpoint, reflecting the high level of concern about Internet security here, and Citrix Metaframe for which there is an insatiable demand.