Plenty of choice in IT education in Indonesia (2)

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): The biggest challenge facing every IT education center is to find instructors who can make computers appear less intimidating to the uninitiated.

In other words, they should be able to explain the workings of the computer in a way that lay people can easily understand.

Widyaloka computer centers make sure instructors meet this requirement by testing and evaluating their performance through feedback from their own students.

At the end of each course, students are asked to give their opinion on the course instructor.

In addition to hiring graduates from computer colleges with several years of teaching experience, the center also recruits Teacher Training College (IKIP) graduates to make sure their instructors are trained as educators.

At the newly established YPIP-NIIT International Information Technology Center on Jl. R.S. Fatmawati, instructors are recruited through a rigorous selection procedure to ensure they are effective teachers.

YPIP-NIIT, the Indonesian licensee of NIIT information technology from India, uses the same standard curricula and teaching materials as franchises in all other countries in which the company operates.

Like franchised fast food outlets, most international IT training companies have standard course material. Singapore-based Informatics uses the same materials here as in all their other franchises around the world. Home-grown Widyaloka has been following this practice and developing its own training material. Its research and development center follows the latest developments in computer software and updates training materials accordingly.

ATC

In a growing number of Indonesian education centers, course materials and teaching methods are endorsed by software manufacturers.

Centers possessing such endorsement are called Authorized Training Centers, or ATC. Microsoft, for example, has several ATCs in Indonesia, one of which is Sarana Solusindo Informatika, which has its headquarters in Jl. Sisingamangaraja, South Jakarta.

ATCs benefit from the endorsement because the training certificates they issue gain credibility through bearing the name of well known software houses. Widyaloka is in the process of applying for ATC status.

Widyaloka offers a broad range of courses and subjects, from simple word processing and spreadsheets, to desktop publishing, the Internet and Computer Aided Design (CAD). Students enrolled on its courses come from elementary school up to college level. Classes are also run for business executives and secretaries.

Even during the current economic slump, enrollment in Widyaloka courses has remained quite high.

"During the Christmas holidays, parents who didn't want to see their children just hanging around doing nothing sent them to our classes. It kept us busy," Djoni Oentoro of YPIP said.

YPIP-NIIT began their operation in the midst of economic gloom, a rather unfortunate time. But, as a large global corporation offering computer training and software solutions, the center is confident that it will eventually be able to strengthen its presence here.

"We plan to open more branches throughout Indonesia," Sunita Lodha, vice president of YPIP-NIIT, told me.

YPIP-NIIT offers a unique program that I believe others could learn from.

Sandeep Godkhindi of YPIP told me his center offers a three- year program for IT professionals. During the first and the second years, students follow the center's curriculum.

In the third year, YPIP-NIIT find a workplace where each student can work as an apprentice, such as MIS departments in private sector companies. The companies provide excellent training and experience for the students. I think this is a fabulous idea because students get the opportunity to learn their skills in the real world.

Tips

There was one interesting thing that I noticed in the course of this exercise. Many companies opt to pay for a few employees to study at IT education centers in the hope that when they return to work they will pass on their new skills to colleagues.

At first glance, this may seem to be a cost-efficient way of developing human resources. However, if you think about it more carefully, these skilled individuals will be wasting valuable time doing something they are not trained to do, namely teaching computer skills.

In workplaces where productivity really matters, expecting workers to teach fellow workers is a bad idea.

What do you have to take into account when sending employees or your children to a computer education center?

First, you have to first ask around before making your choice. Schools which have a long list of companies as clients might be a good indicator of quality. You can ask companies on the list for their opinion of the center that you have in mind.

Second, you should pay attention to what subjects employees are going to study at the center. Needless to say, you'd be wasting your money if your employees or your children learn to use obsolete programs such as WordStar or MultiMate.

In smaller towns such as Malang, for example, courses offered are based on the availability of instructors. Therefore, it is not surprising to see computer centers offering courses in COBOL and Clipper.

The problem is that students may not immediately find jobs that require skills in these dated programming languages when they complete the course.

Had they spent their time learning to program in the more up to date C++, Visual Basic or Java, they would immediately find themselves in high demand.