Diploma wins IT industry backing

By JULIE MIDDLEBROOK Careers Editor

Science, arts and business graduates are being offered fast-track training in the IT business.

A new private training body with bases in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, the Information Technology Institute, aims to take its first 12 to 14 students in the middle of next month.

Managing director Chris Mitchell said the institute would offer a nine-month, $11,500 graduate diploma in information technology which would feature a six-month work placement with employers.

Mr Mitchell, who set up the commercial arm of what is now Auckland's Unitec in the 1980s, said ITI, which had been registered with the Qualifications Authority, aimed to fill a large gap in the market.

"Employers are being inundated with graduates with business, arts and science degrees who are looking for a job in IT, and although they may learn quickly they don't have specific IT skills," he said.

"For any company, it's too high a risk to take these students on and hope they'll pay their way before pushing off to another job elsewhere."

However, graduates had strong motivation to succeed, solid research skills and an understanding of the world of work, said Mr Mitchell. "They know what they have to do to make progress."

Students would study computer languages Visual Basic and C++, database management, business and systems analysis and project management.

So far, most graduates inquiring about the course had marketing degrees, he said, with music and science also represented.

Among the companies keen to take work placement students - and pick the cream of the crop - were Christchurch software manufacturer JADE, payroll software company Comacc, and Wellington-based web design and development business CWA New Media.

David Copeland, director of CWA New Media, said: "We see ITI as a source of recruiting staff. Every workplace has its own culture, and the six-month work project provides an opportunity for the company and the IT student to really get to know each other before issues of employment even arise."

Comacc boss Peter Nathan also sees the course as a happy hunting ground.

"We find that if we take students straight from university it takes so long to make them have any value as employees.

"ITI will fill a gap ... It's taking people with the intellectual capacity and then giving them some practical, hands-on experience. As employees they'll become useful a lot quicker, and because they are also graduates in other disciplines, they'll bring new ideas and innovation to a company."

www.iti.co.nz