Project management and IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
skills will be among the most popular training courses during 2005,
experts believe.
The drive for corporate efficiency has increased demand for IT
professionals with ITIL skills, and a recovery in IT spending has
ensured continued demand for project management skills such as
Prince 2. Leading training providers contacted by Computer Weekly
predicted project management and ITIL courses would continue to
rise in popularity.
Eddie Kilkelly training services director at IT training firm
Parity, said, "I expect growth in courses for Prince 2 along with
ITIL service management in 2005."
Brian Sutton director of learning at IT training company QA agreed.
"Project management has grown most significantly, while ITIL
service management has been getting broader and broader acceptance
in the world. We have tripled the amount of Prince 2 courses we are
doing."
Advanced Linux and Oracle skills are expected to top this year's
list of hot skills, and the release later this year of Longhorn,
the next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, is
expected to trigger a new batch of courses, said Sutton.
In response to demand for accreditation, QA will be launching 40
new courses in 2005 covering subjects ranging from Oracle database
training to advanced Linux operating system skills.
Others predict strong demand for courses in infrastructure skills,
such as networking.
"During 2004 we have seen a marked increase in the number of people
attending technical [developer and programming] training courses,"
said Aine McGuire, director of training firm Pygmalion Computer
Group.
"This highlights the fact that organisations are again investing in
developing and upgrading their IT systems and are training their
staff to ensure they have the necessary skills to deploy and manage
new technologies," she said.
Pygmalion, which specialises in Microsoft infrastructure and
development courses, has seen an increasing number of people
attending the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 course over the past
12 months. the training enables participants to upgrade their
skills from Exchange 5.5.
Windows Server 2003 is also popular as organisations prepare to
move from Windows 2000 and Windows NT4, which will soon no longer
be supported by Microsoft.
"During 2005 we expect to see a surge in the number of people
attending system management courses such as Microsoft Operations
Manager 2005 and Systems Management Server 2003," said McGuire.
"The focus will move from deployment to operating and managing the
Windows infrastructure more effectively and efficiently, with
reduced downtime and operating costs.
At a glance
ITIL: The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) guidelines are designed
to help organisations run their IT services more efficiently.
ITIL was developed by the government's Central Computer and
Telecommunications Agency for the UK public sector but has now been
adopted globally. The guidelines - available online or through
training courses - are overseen by international user group the IT
Service Management Forum, which has 2,000 members in the UK.
The library covers seven topics including service support, service
delivery, managing IT infrastructure and security.
Information on Prince and ITIL courses
www.qa.com
Prince: Prince, which stands for Projects in Controlled
Environments, is a method of running IT projects. Developed by the
Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency in 1989 as a UK
government standard for IT project management, Prince has become
widely used in both the public and private sectors.
It is now the UK's de facto standard for project management.
Details of Microsoft infrastructure and development courses
www.pygmalion.com