When an honours degree in economics and 10 years’ experience cannot guarantee a job, what dire future lies ahead for university graduates, let alone school leavers ? Unfortunately, this is the harsh reality that faces the younger generation of today. GetCertified managing director Arnold Graaff recently spoke about new opportunities in ICT.
Sasfin Bank IT application specialist Nicola Rushin is a good example of what lies ahead for university graduates. She had been trying to find employment for six months and despite having ten years’ experience in stock broking administration and an honours degree in economics, she could not even get to the interview stages.
With the financial services crisis looking unlikely to resolve itself any time soon, Rushin decided to make a career change to ICT. However, she was once again facing the standard questions from employment agents whether she has any IT experience or an IT degree. She was not in a position to do another degree and she was starting to lose heart about her decision to change to ICT.
Graaff says, unlike many other industries, there is a bright future in ICT. “There is a huge demand for ICT skills in all industries, especially software developers. Research shows that, with the enormous adoption of cloud computing, there is a massive growth in demand for Web developers.”
“GetCertified was confident that doing an SQL Beginners course with would open all the doors for me to become a Business Analyst, my dream job. I had serious doubts, but I was sold on doing the course anyway because I always wanted to learn SQL. I felt I had nothing to lose,” says Rushin.
“Within a few weeks of attending the SQL course at Get Certified and adding it onto my CV, I was the proud recipient of two job offers from reputable financial services companies – to work in their IT department, as a Business Analyst. It was so easy, it was ridiculous.” “Over and above that, they have excellent teachers and they managed to cater for my needs as well as those students who were more advanced,” she adds.
GetCertified offers a weekly open support evening, at no extra cost to its students, where they can ask questions about their specific course and project. Furthermore, GetCertified is part of a Group of companies that also owns a recruitment agency, Compuways. Unlike other training companies, GetCertified strives to find a job for all its unemployed students.
Graaff encourages students to follow GetCertified’s methodology which results in an international certification and a proper project to show to potential employers. “Our mission is to assist students to pass their international exams. We achieve this by delivering our courses with a strong practical flair, instead of focusing only on exam questions and answers.”
He says the benefit of practicality is twofold, the student can immediately use these practical skills in the workplace and secondly, they can prepare easier for exams. “Many unemployed people come to us to better themselves for the job market and we have successfully placed many such at our clients from our recruitment company Compuways.”
GetCertified recommends that complete beginners should start at the ‘Complete Introduction to Programming’, this can be done over 5 days full-time. Alternatively, one can do part-time training courses which run over five Saturdays (6 hour sessions) or two nights per week five weeks (3 hour evening classes) because there is more time to take the knowledge in and process it with exercises.
“No knowledge of programming or not sure what steps to follow or the cost thereof. Firstly, a bare necessity is a matric certificate with at least a pass in mathematics. We always recommend you should do an aptitude test like the one on http://www.3smartcubes.com and send us the results,” he concludes.
For more information visit http://www.compuways.com or www.getcertified.co.za
ENDS
More about Compuways (www.compuways.com)
Compuways was founded in 1990 by the owner Arnold Graaff. The company supplies IT skills across the spectrum of skills from technical to managerial, permanent or contracting staff. Compuways is BEE Level 4 compliant which means 100% of a clients’ procurement spend will count towards their BEE qualification.
Compuways has established alliances with various IT recruiters on a national and international basis and networks with other agencies and also has partners in India, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to supply the most sought-after skills. This enables it to share its resources using the power of the Internet. Compuways is a member of APSO and abides by its ethics and guidelines in all its procedures. The company also promotes the use of its successful database and recruitment procedures within its client companies as an in-house recruitment system.
Compuways has re-engineered its processes to incorporate Internet and automation technology in the changing roles of the recruiter, employer and job seeker in the recruitment process. Its success is attributed to nurturing loyal clients and candidates, using the Internet to complement the recruitment process. It is able to asses and supply the right level of skill at the right time.
Clients include Fujitsu, IBM, Integrated Business Consultancy, SAP Consulting, EDS ERP, Oracle, Toyota, Caltex Oil, United Pharmaceutical, Standard Bank, Standard Merchant Bank, First National Bank and Rand Merchant Bank.
Prepared by: Company: IT Public Relations
Contact: Ivor van Rensburg
Cell: 082 652 8050
Email: ivor@itpr.co.za
On behalf of: Company: Compuways
Contact: Arnold Graaff
Title: Managing Director
Tel: (011) 803-4079
Cell: (083) 700-2858
Email: Arnold@compuways.com
Filed under: Employers, JobSeekers
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