HP heading back to school

Vendor aims to tackle UK IT skills shortage by partnering with leading university

Hewlett-Packard (HP) is planning to make a dent in the impending UK IT skills shortage by launching a joint initiative together with Thames Valley University.

The vendor has spent the past twelve months working with the university to develop a foundation degree – the Computer Systems Management (with HP Certified Professional) FdSc.

Mike Bicknell, manager of partner education and certification at HP, said the course is open to new students, but is also ideal for resellers that need to improve the skills of their workforce.

“Part of the course includes work placements and it means resellers can get to try out the workforce of tomorrow as well as adding to the skills of their existing employees. The degree makes up 240 credits and students would only need to acquire 120 credits to gain a BSc hons degree,” he said.

Topics covered in the first year include server, storage and networking fundamentals, management information systems and imaging and printing fundamentals. The second year covers advanced server and networking configuration, advanced computing and database design and management.

“The other good thing for partners is that the course takes up just six hours a week study leave from the office and it has real commercial value on completion because it counts for 12-16 credits of HP’s Certified Professional qualifications,” Bicknell added.

Bicknell said the industry should be looking at addressing the impending skills crisis now before it becomes a major issue and HP’s channel partners have welcomed the scheme.

“Some of our enterprise resellers have expressed a real interest in the course and places are already limited,” he said.

But David Freedman, information technology sector head at training specialist Huthwaite International, said it is important that firms don’t just focus on the technical side of training.

“Technical staff do spend a lot of time in front of non-technical people, and it is often a problem for them to hold conversations in a non-technical way. The way people manage a sales process is often just as important as having a deep technical knowledge,” he said.