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 INDUSTRY
LEADERS ESTABLISH IT CERTIFICATION COUNCIL
Leading players in the IT industry have formed the Information Technology Certification
Council (ITCC) "to position professional certifications for major new growth,
ensuring a qualified workforce to support the world's technology needs".
Founding members of the ITCC include HP, Microsoft, Sun, IBM, Novell, CompTIA,
LPI, Prometric, Pearson VUE, and Kaplan. The ITCC says it intends to confront
issues facing the IT certification industry, including exam security, perceptions
versus realities of IT certification value and return on investment, and training
to testing ratios. Dec 2007
FIREBRAND
ACCELERATED LEARNING FOR SUN
 Firebrand
Training, formerly The Training Camp, is to offer authorised
Accelerated Learning courses for Sun Microsystems. The new
courses include Sun Java Pro and Solaris Certified System Administrator
(SCSA). Firebrand uses an Accelerated Learning methodology
to deliver courses in a matter of days at an immersive residential
site. Its new accredited status will open up its audience for
Accelerated Learning to larger enterprises and will bring the
added benefit of Sun support and marketing tools. Dec
2007
UK
LAUNCH FOR APPDEV TECHNICAL PUBLISHING
US-based AppDev
Technical Publishing, an award-winning ILT courseware provider
focused on Microsoft technologies, is now making its courseware
available to training companies in the UK. AppDev courseware is
already extensively used by training companies worldwide, and has
won recognition with awards from leading technical publications
such as Windows IT Pro and Visual Studio Magazine.
The company’s courseware offerings represent present and
future Microsoft technologies—from Visual Studio 2005 and
SQL Server 2005, to ASP.NET AJAX, SharePoint 2007 and Visual Studio
2008. For more information, contact info@pardofox.com. Dec
2007
THE
ART OF PEOPLE FROM QA-IQ
QA-IQ has launched 'The Art of People', a new portfolio of over
forty Management and Personal Development courses. It includes
skills to help people improve their value to benefit both their
employer and themselves through strong communications, effective
relationship building, inspirational leadership and business partnership
skills. There are also courses focusing on team building, management
and leadership to help business overcome the new challenges created
by the way we work today, including remote working, virtual teams
and home working. Dec 2007
GLOBAL
KNOWLEDGE’S LEE IS MVP AGAIN
 Thomas
Lee, Chief Architect for Microsoft EMEA at Global Knowledge,
has achieved the status of Microsoft Most Valued Professional
for 2008 – the thirteenth year in succession that he
has been named on the vendor's elite list of skilled technicians.
Lee has been closely involved in the Microsoft Readiness Program
for Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS 2007) and played
a leading role in the initial meetings of the Microsoft PowerShell
User Group in the US and Europe. He is also an expert in the
latest Microsoft Security solutions and with this latest accolade
becomes one of the longest-standing MVPs in the world. Dec
2007
PARITY
TO FOCUS ON PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Parity Training is to refocus its delivery strategy at the IT business
improvement level, after conducting research that revealed a lack
of business skills among IT managers which leads to project failure
or services that do not meet financial performance targets. The
company says organisations have habitually invested in developing
technical skills but have often failed to give additional ‘professional'
skills the same priority. To help organisations do this, Parity
is making ‘huge changes’ to the way it sells its services.
In addition to launching added value services such as Learning
Plus and Parity e-books (see below), it intends
to overhaul its learning portfolio to include IT Governance, Management
and Professional skills. Dec 2007
ORACLE
LAUNCHES LINUX TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION
 Oracle
University is to provide course offerings on the Linux operating
system, as well as courses for database and system administrators
who run Oracle Database on Linux. These courses will lead to
new Oracle Certification Program credentials that recognise
Linux skills and expertise with Oracle Database. John L. Hall,
senior vice president of Oracle University, says: "With
our proven track record of training customers on subjects spanning
the entire Oracle software stack, we now embark on a strategy
of providing Linux training to anyone who wants to learn and
master Linux." Dec 2007
PROMETRIC
TO SPONSOR KEY AWARD
The Institute of IT Training (IITT) has announced that Prometric
will be the sponsor of the Training Company of the Year Award at
the IT Training Awards 2008. Now in their 12th year, the Awards
are firmly established as the benchmark for excellence in the IT
Training Industry. 2007 has been an exceptional year for Prometric:
it was acquired from Thomson Learning by ETS, the world's largest
assessment and research institution, and also secured the global
contract to deliver Microsoft's professional certification exams. Dec
2007
WHAT
SHOULD EVERY CITP KNOW?
As part of the Professionalism in IT (ProfIT) initiative, the BCS
is attempting to define a core body of IT knowledge, understanding
and transferable skills which every Chartered IT Professional (CITP)
should possess. A group of some fifty senior professionals has
produced a first pass of the Core Body of Knowledge, and is now
inviting consultation and suggestions for improvement. To contribute,
see the CITP consultation
website. Dec 2007
WAVE
GOODBYE
SkillSoft has closed down the Wave Technologies business that it
inherited when it acquired NETg from Thomson Learning. Wave specialised
in certification bootcamps, and was ranked 25th in the UK Top 50
before its acquisition by NETg in 2002. In its latest quarterly
reporting, SkillSoft says it discontinued the operation of the
Wave business in the Aug-Oct quarter of this year. Dec
2007
LOWER
CHURN = MORE TRAINING?
Employers looking to recruit IT staff are facing tough times ahead,
says the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo),
as the number of techies prepared to change jobs has fallen dramatically.
The proportion of IT workers looking for a new job or open to changing
their existing one has dropped to 28% in the last quarter, compared
to close to half (42%) a year ago, according to research from SkillsMarket/
ATSCo. This shrinking pool of IT candidates could exacerbate skills
shortages, says ATSCo, and may drive up salaries as employers compete
to win the best staff on offer. Greater levels of job inertia may
also have implications for training since employers may have to
spend more on training their existing staff, says ATSCo. (Reported
by silicon.com) Dec 2007
NEW
MD FOR EPIC
Epic has appointed Jonathan Satchell as its new Managing Director.
Satchell has a distinguished history in the UK e-learning industry
having been CEO and owner of EBC from 1997 until 2006, when he
sold EBC to Futuremedia. Dec 2007
COMPTIA
TO RETIRE i-NET+
The CompTIA i-Net+ certification will be retired on 31 December
2007. i-Net+ was established in January 2000 as a benchmark certification
for individuals who maintained and developed web-related content
and applications. CompTIA says that in recent years, these job
roles have evolved and the number of Internet-only job roles has
declined; IT professionals working on the development of Web-related
applications have taken on additional, broader responsibilities,
and CompTIA offers a number of other certifications that are appropriate
for these people. 20,000 individuals worldwide have achieved the
i-Net+ certification, and their certifications remain valid. Dec
2007
WORLD
OF LEARNING AWARD WINNERS
The World of Learning Awards were presented at a black-tie event
at the NEC Birmingham on 14 November. Winners included BVS Training,
Auralog, Linklaters, the BBC, 7city Learning and IMC(UK) Learning.
The award for Outstanding Contribution to the Training Industry
went to Valerie Thompson, Chief Executive of the e-Learning Foundation. Full
list of winners, Dec 2007
FINANCIAL
SERVICES DIVISION FOR KNOWLEDGEPOOL
KnowledgePool has created a new division to align its services
to the needs of financial services organisations. The company's
existing clients in this sector include Lloyds TSB and Merrill
Lynch. The new division will be led by CEO Paul Jefferson, and
KnowledgePool has appointed Terry Lockhart – formerly Head
of Leadership and Development at Merrill Lynch – as a divisional
advisor and has also recruited a new sales team dedicated to the
sector. Dec 2007
QA-IQ
WINS TRAINING FOR FIRELINK PROJECT
 QA-IQ
has been appointed by Airwave to design and deliver technical
and end-user skills training to support the critical Firelink
communications project for the English, Scottish and Welsh
Fire and Rescue Services (FRS). The seven courses to be developed
will include fifteen modules and will be delivered to the fourteen
FRS regions in the UK. As well as core technical training for
the Control Centres, System Managers, Maintenance teams, and
Fleet Mapping Managers who will be using the new hardware,
QA-IQ will also train and support the FRS's own instructors
to cascade training throughout the FRS's sixty thousand operational
users. QA-IQ will also provide a fully managed service incorporating
additional training from key technology vendors into the programme. Dec
2007
PARITY
E-BOOKS ADD VALUE TO CLASSROOM LEARNING
Parity is providing its delegates with a learning support library
across 178 of its top courses. Parity e-Books, powered by Books24x7,
gives subscription access to five book shelves, covering
30 books per shelf, for all delegates as part of their learning
support material. The subscription lasts one year and provides
additional e-reference content across broader aspects of the subjects
aimed at furthering development and understanding. The books offered
are current editions and from leading publishers such as Harvard
Business School, John Wiley, Kogan Page, Project Management Institute
and AMACOM. Dec 2007
INTELLEGO
ACQUIRES COPIA
Intellego has acquired e-learning business Copia Ltd which supplies
e-learning design and development, consultancy, multimedia services
and portal design and development. Copia has specialist knowledge
of the retail environment and particular expertise in EPoS, and
in retail operations, processes and customer services. Intellego
and Copia have worked together regularly for eighteen months. Dec
2007
TRAINERBASE
TAKES UP THE CHALLENGE
 TrainerBase,
the online directory of freelance and independent training
providers, is planning to become a trade/professional association.
Founder Peter Mayes says that for the past three or more years
he has been called on by members to create a body – an
institute, society or federation – that supports the
needs of trainers. He plans to launch the Association for Learning
Practitioners (AfLP) in April 2008, and intends this to be
seen as the primary organisation that supports the needs of
freelance and associate learning practitioners and independent
learning providers. Dec 2007
COMPUTERLINKS'
TRAINING FACILITY EXPANDED
Computerlinks has announced the expansion of its London Training
Centre at Royal Mint Court, Tower Hill. Computerlinks is a certified
training centre for Blue Coat, Check Point, XenSource and Juniper
Networks, and demand has risen for the company to provide a greater
variety of training courses and more frequently. The expansion
means it can now train up to 40 delegates simultaneously on four
different training tracks. (Reported by Comms Business/IITT) Dec
2007
E-LEARNING
AGE AWARD FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER
Information Transfer and Superquinn have won the E-Learning Age
award for 'Best Project Securing Widespread Adoption'. This is
the second year in succession that Information Transfer has taken
top prize in this category. Superquinn, the Irish supermarket chain,
worked with Information Transfer to create more than 25 on-line
modules and assessments that were made available to more than 4,000
staff in all 23 Superquinn stores. In some stores uptake has topped
90% within 3 months of going live. Dec 2007
INFOBASIS
SUPPORT FOR PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
 Capability
management expert InfoBasis has announced support for performance
management within its Enterprise Skills Infrastructure (InfoBasis
ESI) platform. InfoBasis says the additional functionality "enables
ongoing cycles of employee objective setting and appraisal.
This method of rating performance allows individual activity
to be aligned to strategic organisational goals, and to key
performance indicators." Dec 2007
BLUE
ESKIMO EXPANDS INTO CORPORATE L&D
Blue Eskimo, a specialist provider of recruitment services in the
training and e-learning sector, is expanding its services into
the corporate learning and development marketplace. It says the
natural line between the skills of consumers and providers of learning
has become blurred: increasingly corporate learning departments
are responsible for employing and managing internal specialists
such as instructional designers, e-learning producers and training
delivery staff. Dec 2007
AWARDS
FOR EPIC AND UNIAID
Epic and UNIAID have been awarded a trio of prestigious prizes
for their All About U e-learning programme, winning a regional
National Training Award, a special mention from e-learning age
and a runner-up prize in the WOLCE awards. UNIAID, Epic and partners
developed UNIAID's online tools to help students prepare for and
cope with the financial side of higher education. The tools enable
young people with little or no idea about the challenges of independent
living to rehearse and prepare in a safe environment. Dec
2007
COGENT
USES MYKNOWLEDGEMAP E-PORTFOLIO
Sector Skills Council Cogent is to employ the contactless smartcard
technology used for TfL's Oystercard to provide secure web-based
learning for employees in the chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nuclear,
oil and gas, petroleum and polymers sectors. Cogent has commissioned
learning technology provider MyKnowledgeMap (MKM) to produce a
passport and upskilling platform that records personal learning
and development. A joint initiative with personal identity card
supplier Payne Security sees Payne integrating the same technology
used for TfL with MKM's Multi-Port e-portfolio system. Dec
2007
TIS
LOOKS TO NORTHERN EUROPE
Global learning provider Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) is expanding
its presence in Scandinavia and the Benelux countries by opening
a sales office in the Netherlands to service the learning market
in Northern Europe. It is also opening a new office in Koln, Germany
to augment its existing offices in Tubingen, Germany, and Zurich,
Switzerland. TIS’s moves follow its acquisitions of Tertia
Edusoft AG in Switzerland and Tertia Edusoft GmbH in Germany, nearly
two years ago, which strengthened the company’s position
in the European corporate and education sectors. Dec
2007
LONDON
RECRUITS FROM OVERSEAS
Businesses in London struggling to meet their skills needs are
increasingly looking overseas for both graduates and lower-skilled
staff, according to the London Business Survey from the CBI and
KPMG. Results from the survey show that 65% of firms in the capital
expect to be troubled by skills shortages over the next six months,
and 58% are already recruiting from overseas to fill gaps. Contrary
to the perception that overseas workers often perform low-skilled
jobs, 83% are bringing in those with higher, degree-level skills.
The report says many employers are choosing foreign graduates over
British applicants because they are of a higher quality and are
more employable, and that to remain attractive to employers UK
graduates need stronger employability skills in areas like teamworking
and communication. Dec 2007
ASSIMA
PARTNERS WITH KDS
Assima has signed a new partnership with KDS, a European leader
in on-demand travel and expense solutions. Under the agreement,
which includes e-learning solutions and change management services,
KDS will provide its customers with access to Assima's e-learning
tools and portal to help train their employees on the use of their
T&E solution. KDS will also provide full change management
support, including the coaching of change leaders, development
of internal communication tools, and management of communication
and training campaigns. Dec 2007
BRANDON
HALL AWARD FOR KAPLAN IT LEARNING
STT Trainer, Kaplan IT Learning's simulation and documentation
software for enterprise training, has won third place in the Building
Software Simulations category at the 2007 Brandon Hall Software
Simulation Shootout in Santa Clara, California. This marks a hat-trick
of successes for Kaplan IT Learning, which was also awarded the
2006 Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Gold Medal in the Learning
Technology category, and the 2005 Brandon Hall Most Innovative
Simulation Authoring Tool award. Dec 2007
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