Tradition holds strong for training

Pro

The buzz around virtualisation has led to a massive increase in demand for training in the area, though old favourite Microsoft Excel is still enormously popular according to ICT skills experts. Many in the industry believe that the appetite for learning about the advantages of a migration towards virtual servers and virtual desktops has risen dramatically in 2010 and will continue to build over the next year to 18 months.

“It (virtualisation) is one of the main developments affecting ICT training at present,” noted Gerry Grogan, senior IT training specialist at the Institute of Public Administration (IPA). He continued, “I think it has moved from a buzz-word to something that both large and small clients that we work with in the public sector are using.

“The other big move is cloud computing. A lot of organisations are beginning to migrate applications to the cloud,” added Grogan. The IPA man’s opinion was backed up time after time by various industry heavyweights.

GREAT INTEREST
Steven Purcell of Global Knowledge for one offered that the whole area of data centre expertise and virtualisation are where ICT trainers are experiencing most interest at present. The country manager listed vBlock, Cisco’s UCS system and Citrix XenApp Training as areas of major interest from clients.

“Training these days is very much project driven – it’s all about what is being implemented in a company rather than getting a cert,” said Purcell. “There’s a big demand for training in virtualisation and solutions behind it – it’s certainly seen as the future of business. People want to know about it, use it, and move onwards.”

He added that the fact that the concept of the cloud “means different things to different people” and that not all companies understand “how to implement it properly”, means that training in this area has grown rapidly as well.

“In terms of cloud computing and virtualisation, costs savings are huge but companies need to have a clear strategy and skills to implement correctly,” continued Purcell.

“In turn, we are working on the development of training solutions in this area, from one-day workshops explaining what is cloud computing and how it affects business, not only IT but all areas of a companies’ business. There’s also certified courses from the largest vendors such as Cisco, VMWare, Microsoft and Citrix.”

CITRIX
Citrix’s own David Taylor, senior director of consulting and education, said that, for the moment, “the focus for all businesses is on saving money and improving efficiency and what we are seeing is a growing demand for virtualisation products and the related training”.

Training demand, he argued, mirrors that of growth areas in the market. “XenServer, Citrix’s server virtualisation product, saw an increase in students of 90% from 2008 to 2009 across Europe, said Taylor, “this growth rate slowed a little to 50% for the first half of 2010 as these technologies become more commonly used.”

SECURITY
Linda Hennessey, operations director with DigiCore told ComputerScope that since the downturn of the economy HR departments around the country have been forced to seek employees with multiple IT skills.

Giving an example, she said that while the area of IT security was previously a “specialised discipline” within any organisation that has now drastically changed. Hennessey added, “With the right training those with an already defined skill-set can achieve high level security qualifications thereby adding multiple discipline value to their skill-sets within an organisation while maintaining the required security infrastructure.”

Hennessey said that the “security horizon” has changed severely over the last few years. “Services like e-discovery, computer and mobile phone forensics; penetration testing, security assessment, and data compromise are no longer the preserve of an elite few. Security training companies across the world are now offering third level qualifications in these disciplines to satisfy the industry demand,” she added.

SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Ross Bolton meanwhile, sales director with Sureskills, noted that the area of service management is receiving a great deal of attention these days. “Many of our traditional IT customers have chosen to adopt management best practise methodologies such as ITIL, PRINCE2, PMI and Six Sigma,” he revealed.

This has, he feels, been driven by the realisation that IT budgets need to be invested “not only in the technology but in the processes that surround it”. With regards to service management stalwart ITIL, Bolton said that he has seen a “large increase in demand for the new V3 Intermediate modules” as companies seek to improve operational efficiencies, align IT better with the business requirements and maintain service with reduced resources.

“In project management we have seen many IT professionals and service organisations up-skilling with PRINCE2 and PMI as they have become pre-requisites for many contracts and tenders,” he added.

SOFTWARE TESTERS
Head of training with SQS Ireland, Patricia McGuire said that training for software testers is another area that’s gaining fans rapidly. Even in the midst of cash-strapped times, the requirements for software quality engineers and testers of all levels – be they junior testers, test analysts, software performance testers or those skilled in test automation – to be kept up to date on developments in their area is vital.

“It’s a growing area,” McGuire said from the SQS offices on Dawson Street. “This may be because the whole area of software quality and compliance is crucial right now and organisations cannot afford not to be behind in ensuring that their systems are running at the optimum level ensuring efficiency, cost effectiveness, productivity and profit.”

McGuire also noted that it has become quite apparent that the newly unemployed community with some experience in the IT sector are focussing attention on skilling-up as software testers, which are borne out by an apparent increase in numbers of individuals enquiring about and booking training in the testing area, around ISTQB, ISEB HP and Microsoft ‘Test Professional’ training. All financed out of their own pockets.

OLD FAVOURITE
While training in all of the ICT skills mentioned above are seeing tremendous interest, it should be pointed out that a great number of those questioned by ComputerScope for August’s Advisor section instantly chose Microsoft Excel as the area where they see most interest in training on a daily basis, as has been the case for several years.

“People don’t know how powerful a tool it is and often find that they haven’t been using it correctly at all,” commented PFH’s Catherine O’Keeffe. The training manager said that on the end user front, Excel is still the most sought after area of training. “It’s still one of the main areas that people are training in, no doubt about it at all.”

“They’re trying to get more out of the figures, analysis data properly and lots more besides,” continued O’Keefe, “because Excel has a lot of capabilities that people unfortunately ignore a lot of the time. As with a lot of other areas though, people are customising the course purely for their needs, it’s not about a qualification as such now; it’s based on getting what’s needed and getting back to the office.”

O’Keefe was backed up on her Excel point by several of the experts we talked to – including Purcell, Microsoft’s own Colin Cassidy, Olas MD Ruairi Boland and the IPA’s Grogan.

Boland in fact commented that, “In all honesty, we’re not seeing much interest coming from clients for virtualisation, certainly not compared to Excel. We’re working with 17 of Ireland’s top tech companies for example and maybe we should be out there trying to sell the next big thing but it (virtualisation) is not an issue to most of our customers. We’re not seeing that trend.”

He continued, “Whereas, on the flip side, Excel is still a big seller and despite the fact that it’s coming up to its 25th birthday it’s still the most important application in most decision-making processes in most companies in Ireland. Most people will end up extracting info into Excel. People keep training in it because there aren’t any products out there that are as embedded in the currency, the language of the office as Excel.”

BIG PART
Sage Ireland training manager, Vivienne Ryan admitted also that while the company usually just gives training in their own course, “we have introduced Excel into the courses as it’s such a big part of the payroll courses for instance. It’s all connected so it must be there.”

As for those Sage training modules, Ryan said she has the distinct advantage of being in close contact with the company’s R&D team. “If I know what they’re thinking about trying we know what the trainers will have to provide,” she said. As for delivering this content to Sage customers, Ryan noted that WebEx is becoming increasingly common for training. Areas she feels may see strong growth in the second half of this year include training on Sage 50 Mobile which allows users access to their accounts wherever they are and at whatever time they like. “I’m biased, but it’s great and those mobile solutions will require training as well,” she added.

CERTIFIED TRAINER PROGRAM
Microsoft’s Cassidy, who was delighted to hear about the continued push on Excel, also talked about the in-demand Microsoft Certified Trainer Program as one major growth area in the training sector. “In Ireland we would have about 45 MCTs, the majority of those are independent contractors but when you break it down to those who are delivering training, it’s in the region of about 20 in the country,” he said.

“It’s an ecosystem that we’ve created and the value we get from it is that it allows us to scale our technologies to a much wider base than if we were just doing it ourselves,” noted Cassidy. “It’s more the skills set and getting on top of that,” he said, “and over the last few years what we would have seen was that individuals were investing in their own skill set, improving their chances of better employment opportunities.”

FUTURE OF TRAINING
As for the next year or two, there were a variety of theories that were bounced around as possible areas where training will blossom in that time. Concentrating more on the delivery of training, Citrix’s Taylor said, “We expect more of this pre- and post-classroom training to be conducted self paced and through virtual classrooms where the students connect with a trainer through a combination of voice over IP, remote labs, and session sharing/viewing”.

Sticking with the delivery of training, Hennessey would also note that with the emergence of new technologies such as the Apple iPad or any of the myriad of tablet PC devices on the horizon – such as the HP Slate or the Asus Eee Pad – the traditional note-taking classroom-based learning interactive environment will be capable of being transported outside of the classroom.

Hennessey maintained that over the next 18 months this shift from traditional paper based learning material to full portable interactive media will accelerate the learning curve and bring in a new era of education.

She noted that Digcore is already offering material on third level qualification courses to students, using the iPad. “This is having a positive effect on their learning experience and allows them the freedom to explore the latest options in learning technology,” she claimed.

SureSkills Bolton has his eyes firmly fixed on developments in Microsoft to see where ICT training will head over the coming years. No change there then.

“Relatively new Microsoft technologies such as Windows 7, Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 are already showing signs of growth that will continue over the next year to 18 months,” he said,

“As with all IT change; these requirements are driven by business, and IT decisions usually to migrate to the next generation to improve efficiencies. The rest of this year and then 2011 in particular, we will see many organisations shift to the latest Microsoft products; this will create a skills gap in these areas and in turn a training requirement,” he concluded.

Read More: People