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In today’s tight job market, people with specialized skills are the most likely to land good-paying jobs. For recent college graduates, competition for jobs can be fierce. The old axiom of “you can’t acquire skills without a job and you can’t get a job without the skills” is truer now than ever.
Sun Microsystems is helping to give college students a leg up in the job market by revamping and expanding the Sun Academic Initiative. The SAI offers non-profit universities free Web-based training and courses that give faculty, IT staff and students the knowledge they need to become certified in Sun technologies. For students, gaining certification puts their career on the fast track, giving them specialized, in-demand skills before they even graduate.
The SAI isn’t just for students. The program is open to IT staff and faculty in educational institutions who want free training on Solaris, Java, and other Sun technologies and to start down the path towards certification on some of the most robust and open platforms on the market today.
With more than 3000 member institutions, 500 of which joined in the past year, SAI is proving to be a popular and valuable program for academia. So far in 2008, 6659 certifications have been delivered, 600 more than all of 2007. The number of completed courses has topped 13,300 year to date, versus 8645 completed courses in all of last year.
Certification Boosts Career and Earnings Potential
Certification not only boosts marketable IT job skills — it quantifiably increases earnings potential. A recent Certification Magazine Salary Survey found that on average:
- Sun certified programmers earn 8.3 percent more ($79,000) than the average programmer
- Sun certified developers earn 14.3 percent more ($91,000) than the average developer
- Sun certified system administrators earn 31 percent more ($86,000) than administrators certified on other operating systems
The strong showing for certified Java technology developers, according to the magazine, “demonstrates the programming language’s popularity. Its adoption continues to grow at a rapid rate because of its ability to run on many different platforms and its simple object model.”
According to a 2008 IT salary report by Robert Half Technology, the average starting salary for IT professionals will increase by 5.3 percent over 2007, with bigger increases for specialized and sought-after skills.
Also fueling salary growth is simple supply and demand. Fewer U.S. students are pursuing degrees in computer science, yet the IT industry continues to grow. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in December listed the 30 fastest growing occupations for the years 2006-2016: IT-related jobs accounted for four of them.
New for Students: SAI Registration on Demand
In the past, the SAI was available only to those people (students, IT staff, and faculty) affiliated with registered institutions. As of August, any student can enroll for free Sun training even if his or her university is not registered with the SAI.
As of August, any student can enroll for free Sun training even if his or her university is not registered with the SAI.
The lower barrier to entry proved an immediate hit. Within 10 days, more than 1000 people signed up for SAI coursework — even before most schools had begun their fall terms.
“We no longer require that a student’s university be affiliated and enrolled in SAI to apply for the program,” says Tzel Anselmo-Ramos, program manager at Sun. “We really want to connect with the students and this gives us a way to introduce the program to them. We hope to prepare people for a career in technology. That’s what this is about.”
And for faculty, the SAI gives instructors full access to Sun interactive training materials, including slides, speaker notes, and practice exams that may be used for hands-on classroom teaching in universities, colleges, or technical and vocational schools.
New ‘Learning Paths’ Streamline Training and Certification
Sun has also made it easier than ever for SAI participants to become certified. The SAI now offers guided “learning paths” that compile all the courses needed for certification into a folder.
“So instead of wading through all the courses and trying to figure out the certification requirements on your own, you can access, say, the systems administrator folder which gives you all the course requirements you need to become certified,” says Anselmo-Ramos.
This “learning path” method is used in Sun’s commercial training programs, but is new to the education market. The SAI Learning Connection is a portal for access to training resources that help SAI participants develop education plans, track their progress and test scores, and access assessment and learning events.
Free Training from Desktop to Datacenter
The SAI offers nearly 50 free Web-based courses ranging from Java technology development and Solaris OS administration to the StarOffice desktop suite and server and storage systems. Certifications are available in four areas: Sun Certified Java Associate, Sun Certified Java Programmer, Sun Certified System Administrator, and Sun Certified Network Administrator.
A smaller number of free instructor-led courses are available, as are free online practice certification exams and a discounted rate ($40-$60 depending on location) to take the exam.
For IT managers in higher education, the SAI provides tech staffers with free training on sought-after technologies and puts them on the path to certification. As Anselmo-Ramos points out, training is a paid service in the commercial market. With certification, IT staffers increase their marketable skills and earnings potential. The numbers prove it.
College graduates know that earning a degree is no longer a guarantee of landing a job. People with specialized skills have a practical advantage over those who don’t. The Sun Academic Initiative not only prepares students to enter the 21st century workforce, but also gives education IT managers a chance to broaden their staff’s skills for free. For IT professionals, the SAI offers the tools to master core skills that will help them, and their institutions, excel.
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