CNME looks at third party trainers and how they can contribute to the development of both university students and internal IT staff.
Armed with a university degree one might be, but third party trainers and one-off courses can still add a lot of value to every IT aspirant, regardless of rank.
Ali Alamadi, principal consultant at help AG Middle East, says third party training courses can indeed be beneficial if the right training provider is chosen.
“If the right training provider is not chosen, it will be a wasted exercise. Even subject matter experts may fail at delivering quality training programmes. It is important to understand that not every IT specialist or expert is a good trainer,” he says.
Help AG develops unique training programmes based on the needs of the customer and trainers are evaluated before delivering the programme to ensure their full capability of delivering the courses effectively, according to Alamadi.
Pawandeep Singh Arora, sales manager for learning services at Gulf Business Machines, says that third party training is very common these days.
“Third party training is especially common amongst the IT fraternity and has different facets to it. Most important facet is who the third party delivering the training is and their expertise in the respective areas of training delivery,” Arora says.
“Secondly, what matters is that overall approach of the third party delivering the training. It is very integral part of any such training assignment that the third party takes a holistic approach to understand the very purpose of this training and also understand the expectations of the participants intending to attend the respective training along with their background,” he adds.
A very important aspect of third party training, Arora says, is to set the expectations of the participants right before the training. This should be done in the form of a GAP analysis.
“The GAP analysis between current skill sets level and the desired skill set level will help both participant and the third party. For the participants, it will set the right expectation from the training and for the third party training provider to define the right ingredient for the training to be delivered,” he says.
Substitute
Third party training may be a source of much benefit, but can it in fact act as a substitute for a university degree? Alamadi thinks not.
“Training courses cannot substitute academic degrees but can support them. While universities provide detailed theoretical information about the topic, training courses focus on hands on experiences,” Alamadi says.
“To gain full knowledge about a subject, it will be most beneficial to have a comprehensive programme which includes the best of breeds from academia and the industry. Many third party trainers like Help AG provide the option of developing comprehensive training programmes for its customers by cooperating with universities in the UAE,” he adds.
Arora agrees that it is difficult to compare the two as they complement rather than compete against each other.
“The university degree is more academic and sets a solid foundation. However the third party training is professional short duration trainings, usually enriching the practical exposure of the participants,” he says.
“In today’s challenging working environment, the third party trainings give an edge to the participants, as they practically understanding the subject from a real time perceptive. However the participant with good academic university background can maximise the benefit as they already have solid basics to build upon,” he adds.
Whilst university degrees do provide that solid academic foundation, many IT employers in the region find the lack of hands-on knowledge at university leaves students struggling when leaving academia and entering the world of business.
This is where third party training does take an advantage over university degrees, as it can provide both theoretical and hands on experience.
“These trainings give the opportunity for the students to work on current IT technologies and solutions. Due to the value of such exercises, many universities are adding this to their academic curriculums,” Alamadi says.
Specific
As students pursue more specific career opportunities after university, the requirements for entry-level positions become more complex, which third party training can be more adept at preparing people for.
“Many trade and technical fields require new workers to earn a vendor specific certifications before applying for a position. These short vendor-certified third party trainings provide job seekers with critical skills in various IT areas,” Arora says.
“Also, for professionals working in the industry who have achieved their university degrees long back, professional third party training is a good means to continuously upgrade themselves with the current IT trends. In my view, the third party training is a sincere effort to make the participant competent enough to the rising demands of the workplace by practically exposing them to real time scenarios,” he adds.
Alamadi believes that universities can actually improve their degrees and better equip students for jobs by inviting third party trainers to present case studies and share their experiences of operating in a work environment.
Third party training is not only a useful tool for those aspiring to work in the IT field, it can also be used to train existing internal IT staff.
Help AG is one example of a company that uses it partners as third party trainers to provide courses on different security solutions.
“The training plans developed for internal staff in Help AG includes a mixture of courses provided by Help AG partners and in house trainings provided by experts in Help AG,” Alamadi says.
Alamadi also emphasises the importance of continually providing updated knowledge about what is happening in the IT industry.
Whilst the information provided in academic courses can often be out dated, third party trainers are able to use their day-to-day experience to regularly update their training materials to focus on current subjects, problems and solutions.
“Since IT world is evolving very fast and new technologies are being introduced every day. Such knowledge is very essential for graduates starting jobs in the IT industry,” Alamadi says.
Right direction
According to Arora, most good universities have recognised that there is a gap in their academic curriculum and are already taking initiatives to move pro-actively in the right direction.
“They have joined hands with some leading industry icons like Cisco and Microsoft and have signed partnership agreements such as the Microsoft Academy Partnership or Cisco Academy Partnership. These partnerships surely, to a great extent, give good exposure to the candidates by the time they achieve their degrees. It is just the beginning, and has a long way to go,” Arora says.
Whilst third party training may hold the advantage of hands-on experience over university degrees, the main thing is does lack is the time to really develop someone.
“Time is the key issue in most of these training courses. Most third party training courses are very intensive providing a lot of information in very short time. In such courses, most students grasp part of the information and do not benefit from the programme. We have also seen that some training courses are provided by unqualified trainers which directly affect the quality of the courses,” Alamadi says.
Arora adds: “Like every aspects of life their lies some challenges and drawbacks of so called third party training. These third party training courses are short in duration so at times a detailed in-depth subject is not covered well enough because of that lack of time.”
Another challenge of third party training is the fact that many of the participants may not necessarily come from the same background or have the same length of experience. This can make it difficult for the trainer to accommodate the thirst of such a heterogeneous mix of participants.
However, despite the inevitable challenges, it remains that third party training can be a vital tool to prepare somebody for their desired IT career, or indeed keep those already working IT updated on the latest trends and solutions.
“These trainings are very important and can be beneficial if the right training provider is selected. But it should not be forgotten that these trainings should be part of a bigger training plan and roadmap developed for the staff,” Alamadi says.
Arora adds that third party training could act very well as a catalyst to the process of equipping the right candidate with the right skills.
“In today’s challenging times, where the world economies are facing downfalls and companies are downsizing, it is very important to best equip your employees to maximise the company’s efficiency levels and raise productivity,” he says.
