An almost omnipresent problem the ECF principals have encountered
in our campus assessment visits is the need for training campus
information technology staff in current industry hardware and software
standards. The problem is complicated by its persistence: the standards
continue to advance as the manufacturers develop new products with
new characteristics. In addition, the campus and Internet security
environments are becoming more hostile, requiring new approaches
to assuring the integrity of the infrastructure. Another complication
is that most educational institutions face severe budget constraints
that limit the number of qualified IT staff they can hire, and prohibit
sending their staff to off-campus training to obtain the required
skills.
ECF principals have worked for the past two years with a provider
of online training that offers a solution to the problem. Under
the AN-MSI project, we had almost twenty networking staff from a
variety of colleges and universities test the courses, and received
strongly positive evaluations. We have no affiliation with the company
other than recommending it as the most effective training provider,
in terms of course content, delivery and cost, of any with which
we have dealt. The company is KnowledgeNet, www.knowledgenet.com,
and their higher education specialist is David Bendtsen, at 1 877
816 9398 and david.bendtsen@knowledgenet.com.
He was able to work out a very attractive pricing model for AN-MSI,
so if you're interested mention ECF and AN-MSI regarding discounts
for your staff training.
