Non-profit group offers free skilled programmers - Career Training Coordinators and Employment and Immigration Canada place Institute of Computer Studies students
Non-profit group offers free skilled programmers - Career Training Coordinators and Employment and Immigration Canada place Institute of Computer Studies students

Computing Canada, Dec 19, 1991 by Carolyn Van Brussel



If you need to computerize but the recession has a stranglehod on your budget, a solution is just aroung the corner.



A non-profit company, Carrer Training Coordinators (CTC) working in partnership with Employment and Immigration Canada (EIC), offers all organizations free skilled computer programmers for eight-week periods.



The programmers are selectef from the North York, Ont.-based Institute of Computer Studies.



The CTC, which is on the Institute site, buys seats from the school for EIC candidates.



These are the people who are selected to work for companies free of charge.



Despite the recession the school is doing "extremely well," says president Doug Morley.



"It's as if education is a counter-recessionary business."



He explains that this school is an authorized advanced network training centre for Microsoft, and that a lot of training is done for Bull/HN Information Systems.



Novell and IBM are also looking at doing business with the Institute, says Morley.



The Institute offers it students a diploma in computer programming and systems analysis.



Because it is recognized by the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities, students are eligible for financial assistance.



Almost all students have not had privious experience and include housewives, high school dropouts, the unemployed as well as professionals who want ot upgrade their skills.



The course curriculum is a series of 200 one-week modules covering such topics as programming, networking and computer fudamentals.



One such graduate, John Andersen, used to be a coffee truck driver.



Now he earns over $80,000 as a computer consultant.



"I was trying to find myself," says Andersen, 27.



Presently he works for Exeter, Ont.-based PFW Systems Inc., but he got his start through the Institute.



Andersen described the course the Institute offers as, "You eat, think sleep, breathe computers ... for five months in my case ... 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. and then homework until midnight."



The schooling paid off but Andersen remembers wanting to quit from the pressure.



"They have extremely high standards. Sixty-five per cent is a pass." Andersen graduated from the Institute in 1988.



He started out in the business as a junior programmer but decided that he didn't enjoy that role.



After working through what he calls a "trnasitional" period he became vice-president of sales and marketing for PFW.



COPYRIGHT 1991 Transcontinental Media IT Business Group

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