As the employment market turns to those with requisite computer skills, computer training centres are daily springing up. Okechukwu Kanu analyses their role, vis-a-vis conventional educational establishments, in the training of computer professionals

All over the world, the demand for IT professionals has continued to surpass the supply. The USA, which is the base of the silicon valley has tried to cope with the requirement by opening up its market with juicy incentives for IT personnel who are willing to leave their countries for job opportunities in the US. One in four people with a science degree now living in America was born abroad. No wonder that immigrants play a pivotal role in Silicon Valley's research.

According to Coopers & Lybrand, a country like India sends between 12,000 and 15,000 of its annual crop of 50,000 information-technology graduates to the United States.

Today Nigeria has not been spared the dearth of ICT professionals.

In his presentation at the Nigeria ICT Leadership Forum which took place recently, Lare Ayoola, CEO, Tranter International Limited, said,

"The ICT industry is currently experiencing a shortage of certified and experienced ICT engineers, and the situation will deteriorate rapidly if nothing is done soon to address (it)." He went on to suggest adopting a strategy of recruiting fresh graduates and rapidly developing them to become certified ICT engineers rather than adopting the current practice by many companies in the sector which seek rapid deployment of these personnel, much to the detriment of the industry as a whole. He said, "It should be noted that unless the supply of skilled personnel grows substantially, there will be limited growth in the sector simply because it is a personnel-intensive industry."

Apparently to fill the gap, several computer training institutions have sprouted all around the metropolis claiming to provide the requisite skills for the professional computer job. Some of them even give definite assurances of job employment after a certain number of classes. They claim they have arrangements for direct entry with international institutions. They also claim computer consultants visit their institutions every now and then for the list of successful graduates for the job market. Even when a number of people in the industry have voiced their discomfiture with the strategies and claims of some of these training schools, every evidence points to the likelihood that the schools will continue to thrive, with droves of computer illiterates flocking there for computer training.

But who really is providing the Nigerian IT job market with the skilled and trained employees that are needed to grow the sector. Are the university and the polytechnic graduates more adequately trained for the job than their peers who go to private training institutions all over the place? Who is giving the ICT job market value in terms of job performance? What are the Nigerian job employers looking out for - the sweet-sounding professional certifications like MCSE, MCSD , CCNA and the likes, or the traditional Nigerian ICT university graduate?

THISDAY met Ekene, who has just finished his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme, at one of the training centres. He was there on enquiries on how to register for computer classes when THISDAY spoke with him. When asked why not the university for a computer diploma course, his answer was that the training school was more convenient for him because of the flexibility. He said he hoped to get a job in the next three months and the training schools were just appropriate. For him, "instead of being idle, the three months' training fits adequately into the waiting period between now and the job." He also said that unlike in the university, in the training centres one could advance in stages at his own pace. When asked if he would choose the university over the training centre if the university offered the same kind of flexibility, Ekene said he would definitely choose the university, even though he said a point of attraction for him with the training centre was the international standard.

Another student, Tunde, said the training institutions had good instructors and that was why he preferred them for his computer training needs. Tunde, who is a university graduate, says he finds that the training centre instructors have more time for their students than he was used to in the university. He also said the labs (which are the practical sessions) and the classes were equally divided between themselves. Tunde expressed happiness for the training he had gained. Given a choice between returning to school to study computer science and training with his training centre, Tunde believes his choice will be the training centre for the required job skills.

Another student, Femi, has received training for four months at the training centre; he has also acquired a post graduate diploma from an institution. Femi's is a balanced approach to the comparison. According to him, "schools give the theoretical background but this does not enable you to perform outside as expected." He said the training institution had now given him the practical confidence. "One needs both", he said. "The theoretical lectures here are not as indepth. Lack of computer systems in univerities (is) setting the universities back", he said.

Employers of labour in the IT industry also provided THISDAY with some insight into theirthinking.

In terms of job performance, Engr Titi Omo-Ettu, CEO of Excutive Cyberschuul understands certificates to be the reservoir for additional skills which one picked up after learning the basic computer operation and application. Omo-Ettu sees the training schools as software-bent, database applications or hardware-focused, but says he does not see them in contest with university education , which is a sine-qua-non for taking up any job. He said as far as he was concerned, "I cannot imagine for any moment that a person without, at least, a polytechnic basic education has anything to do in the industry. So I am thinking that MCSE, MCS-whatever makes sense only after one would have acquired his basic academic grounding which would have prepared him for any work."

Omo-Ettu believes university education in computer science, just as in any discipline, prepares the mind while other secondary training either prepares the head or hands or both to do a particular thing better and faster.

It would be a mere commercial activity for anybody to be purporting to be issuing any certificate in computer applications (mark you 'applications' not 'operation') for those whose basic training is poorer than post-secondary.

Omo-Ettu warns that in the course of looking for practical training, Niger-ians should be wary of mushroomimg outfits out to deceive people on the extent of training they are able to provide.

Biodun Marquis, CEO, Pragmatic Technologies, believes personal training and a computer system to onesself prepares one far more than any other thing. "Not even now and again access to computer can give one that much benefit", he said. According to him, training centres were just providing computer access. In his words, "With books and a computer system anyone can provide himself with the required training. Universities, however, complement the training schools in that they provide the basic training on which the practical training rests."

Emma Saint Ekeh, Managing Director/CEO, New Concept Systems Limited, says IT training institutions arose to fill the gap provided by the deficient educational system.

According to him, "The universities and polytechnics which should have given the student a complete and wholesome education are only hand-out colonies where lecturers try to earn a little more money to bridge the gap between unpaid salaries and starvation. This is so because there are no good libraries, no well equiped computer classes. So students graduate without any knowledge of what they've spent four years or so learning."

He also said Industrial Training (IT), which should have afforded students the practical exposure, was not being carried out thoroughly because private companies did not have the time to teach and at the same time pay IT students, since they were watching their overheads.

He thus pointed out that without what the students should have acquired in schools, the professional and private certification insitutions like NIIT, APTECH and similar educational outfits had moved in to provide the much needed practical training. He said even in some cases where the students studied on their own and took certifications like MCSD, MCSE, CCNA, they still were unable to carry out services relating to the certifications they had acquired.

Ekeh's solution is for government to "set up good practical sites for IT students at designated centres around the country. These centres would be used for research and similar programmes with less dependence attached to non-existent private sector facilities for industrial training and research."

On who fits the job more, Ekeh said it depended on what each person had individualy acquired to upgrade his standard and also what inputs the employer could make to improve exposure. Notwithstanding this, he said, formal education helped in a way to polish the raw person both in technical and behavioural attitudes.

He said his company, Newconcept Systems Ltd, imparts the requisite skills, a complete package. "It's very expensive and time- consuming, but the rewards are there", he said.