Taking computer class to find better job

Sudibyo M. Wiradji Contributor Jakarta

The number of institutions offering computer courses has been on the rise over the last several years due to the increasing demand from job seekers who want to improve their qualifications or those who want to promote their professional careers.

Although most computer courses provide basic IT knowledge to high school or university students, many have been established with the objective of producing IT experts qualified to an international standard.

"Computer courses seem to be attractive to professionals who feel left out and are keen to jump onto the technology bandwagon as well as those that want to upgrade to the latest products," said SSI education director Kavita.

Small and large computer course centers are available in the capital, with many occupying rooms in simple buildings while many others have air-conditioned rooms in multistory buildings on main streets. The locally run institutions commonly offer relatively cheap course fees compared to those set by the more professionally managed institutions with programs and syllabi prepared in accordance with international standards.

More professionally managed institutions are equipped with laboratories, restaurants and cafes, and have highly trained tutors.

To ensure the quality of computer education, some computer centers provide internationally standardized certification for graduates to help them to easily find a job or pursue further studies overseas.

In States Information Technology, for instance, upon successful completion of training, participants are awarded the internationally recognized Microsoft Certified Professional, A+ Certification and other international certificates.

Despite the differences in size, course packages, teaching methods, fees and certificates, all of the institutes are benefited from the public's growing awareness of the need to be either "Internet literate" or possess IT skills.

According to Widodo Nurly, chief operating officer of States Information Technology, the Indonesian people have begun to become aware that formal academic education is not flexible in terms of responding to the enormously rapid changes in technology and global information technology products.

Among the favorite computer institutions in town are NIIT, States Information Technology, SSI Education and INIXINDO.

The computer packages offered by each institute are varied, depending on what level participants wish to take, but most are categorized as being short or long term. Each institute has its own way of organizing the materials and modules presented to the students on the basis of the objectives of course. Depending on the package, the courses range from one day to two years.

NIIT's packages include a Career Program that lasts from between six months and two years, Swift Program from two weeks to three months, Corporate Program from one day to five days, and Children's Program/LEDA from two weeks to one month.

Elizabeth Maria Siburian, office manager of NIIT, said that its Career Program introduces a new curriculum called Futurz Technology Curriculum designed in accordance with current industrial needs and corporate demand. The Futurz Curriculum provides a certificate in IT, with the end profile Object Oriented Application Programmer. The course fee is set at Rp 3.69 million per semester.

SSI Education opened its center in the capital in April 2001. Its courses are segregated into to types. "First, the career course which is mainly focused on college students that would like a complete and comprehensive course. The duration can last from six months to two years, depending on how long the student wants to continue. The price for such a course is Rp 3.75 million per semester," Kavita of SSI Education said.

"Second, the short-term courses which range from Office 2000, Web & Graphic Design, Network Administrator, Oracle and Ms SQL Server Database, Web Programming, Java Programming, E-Commerce, Visual Studio.Net," she said, adding that the duration of the courses ranged from one month to five months and price ranged from Rp 890,000 to Rp 4.80 million.

She said that at the moment there seemed to be great interest in Web-related course as many companies were migrating from the traditional client-server architecture to Web-enabled systems. Student interest in the Internet leads them to look for courses with more to do with the Web.

Kavita said: "We have been here for just over a year and already have close to 300 students. We project growth of 30 percent over the next few years."

Meanwhile, INIXINDO's director Didik Pratono Rudiarto said that its course participants were those in the IT profession or IT related areas, with the number of participants increasing from year to year. "When we first opened in 1991, INIXINDO had 200 participants. This has risen to an average of between 2,000 and 4,000 participants per year. This year, the number has reached an average of 100 per week," he said.

Since 1994, instructors have been assigned to teach various training materials abroad, like AIX in the IBM Malaysia training center, Sun Solaris and Java for Sun Microsystems for Asia Pacific, and Sisco in South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia.

At States Information Technology, students follow a training program with a syllabus standardized by Microsoft Corp, CompTIA+ and others, and textbooks published by MicrosoftPress. "The duration needed for each certification program is one week for Microsoft Certified Professional A+ certification program or two months at the most for Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD), Microsoft Certified System Administrator (MCSA) and Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA)," Widodo said.

He said that a hands-on and interactive training system was employed that allowed the student to design, install, implement and administer the network systems available in a company. "The participants have a lunch and coffee break considering that the intensive training program lasts from morning till evening," Widodo said.

Several institutes also offer courses for children in response to their parents' increased awareness of the importance of computers nowadays.

NIIT, for instance, has prepared special programs for children aged between eight and 12, with the purpose of introducing computers to children at an earlier age. "NIIT has designed the LEDA (Learning through Exploration, Discovery & Adventure) program that is suited to children at that age," Elizabeth said.

The programs last between two weeks and one month, with the fees ranging from Rp 300,000 to Rp 500,000 per package.