HP Middle East has opened a training centre at the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT).

The centre will provide training and support for HCT students and industry trainee students in the UAE focusing on networking skills, storage management and full IT services management skills to prepare them for the workplace.

HCT serves over 16,000 students with over 2000 staff around the Emirates and through the Certified Training Centre, students will be able to develop skills across the IT sector through targeted and tailored technical and professional courses from September 2008. At the end of the course, the students will receive certifications in AIS and ITIL Fundamentals.

'Feedback from the industry was that IT graduates lacked expertise in networking and storage management. At HP, we pride ourselves on collaborating with our customers and communities to provide them with vital IT knowledge and skills,' said John Hoonhout, managing director of HP Middle East.

'Through this partnership with the HCT, we’ll be able to provide both students and professors the tools they need to develop advanced levels of IT education based on HP’s high standards and quality,' he added.

Addressing industry’s feedback HP ProCurve, the networking arm of HP is starting specialized courses on Networking and will provide trainings such as AIS, ASE and Master ASE.

This partnership will extend ProCurve’s reach and capabilities to provide such trainings with the long term goal of establishing more training partnerships and resources across the Mena.

The HP Certified Training Centre will also offer HCT professors the opportunity to undergo training in storage management, ITIL services management and networking management.

Once the professors are fully qualified, HP storage, services and networking management courses will become part of HCT curriculum for bachelor and master degrees in IT from the end of 2008.

“Through the HP Certified Training Center, HCT graduates will be able to tackle the ongoing IT challenges in their work environments,” said Dr Tayeb Kamali, vice chancellor of HCT.

As part of its Education Program tailored to develop the education level of the Middle East, HP is planning to extend its educational support to other higher education institutes across the region.-TradeArabia News Service