Local it grads with wide skills in demand

THERE is a growing need for software professionals who have intimate knowledge of commercial programs.

They are needed by organisations to support their enterprise-level software which are usually provided by vendors like IBM and Red Hat.

Organisations prefer to hire IT professionals with specific software expertise so that they can ease into the job quickly without having to spend extra time training.

"Having first-class software is one thing, you also need people equipped to fully exploit the software," said Koh Yang Uei, 41, managing director of software company Synergix Technologies.

Alan Ho, 33, Asean services manager for Red Hat Asia Pacific, echoes this.

"One frequent feedback was that there are no open source skills to support Linux operating systems in the market," he said, summing up the feedback he has obtained from his customers.

Tertiary institutions and vendors are scrambling to meet this need.

Nanyang Polytechnic has a Business Software Innovation Centre (below) to train students in IBM software like Rational WebSphere, which is used to integrate and build software infrastructure.

UniSIM has tie-ups with SAP Asia and Red Hat to teach students to use human resource, manufacturing systems and financial software as well as open source operating systems.

The Singapore Polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) are partners in the Red Hat Academy programme teaching Linux and open source skills.

Cisco has a decade-old programme working with the polytechnics and ITE to train network professionals.

The training is either weaved into the curriculum or offered as electives.

ITE recently scored a coup by having some of its info-communication technology National ITE Certificate (Nitec) students attempt and make the grade in a professional certification - IBM Certified Solution Design ? Functional Tester.

Shafique Dawood, 33, an ITE info-communication technology lecturer, said: "We are meeting the market demand for software quality testers."

The idea is to implant commercial-level training that vendors would usually reserve for their customers into the students' curriculum.

Employers can now hire graduates with these skills straight from school and these efforts are paying off.

"Prior to their graduation, students already have a job offer," said Paul Tay, 36, country leader, Rational Software of IBM Singapore.

Synergix Technologies offered jobs to three ITE students who will graduate in December 2008. "They are young but they buzz with enthusiasm and really understand the software quality assurance process," Yang Uei said.

Yang Uei, whose workforce comprises of mostly university graduates, was impressed with how comprehensive ITE's training on quality assurance is.

He plans to pay the ITE graduates the same salary as he would a fresh polytechnic graduate - $1,800 a month.

The Infocomm Development Authority is also laying a future pipeline of industry-ready talent through its scholarship scheme for all aspects of infocomm talent. The number of IDA scholarships awarded has swelled from 12 in 2004 when it was launched to 48 this year. Brought to you by IBM Singapore