EDUCATION
Community college is where IT's at

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

Call this the "IT" generation.

As in Information Technology.

And now Honolulu Community College is hitching itself to the wagon, and to Microsoft with a new program that sets the community college up as one of only 12 centers in the nation to serve as a training ground and resource to teach IT courses to a new generation of young people.

The computer center is called the Microsoft It Academy Program Regional Center, and it's up and running. The idea is to train high school and college teachers in the state so they can take the program back to their schools, creating more IT academies at that level.

The first 40-hour teacher training will be held over spring break, March 23-30. From 9-11 a.m. on Valentine's Day, there's an open house at HCC for interested teachers and school administrators to get acquainted with the program.

"It's a joint effort between us and Microsoft," says Jerry Cerny, Programs and Training Manager at the Honolulu Community College IT Academy Regional Center.

"There are statistics showing there are 600,000 IT jobs in the country unfilled," said Cerny. "There's a real need across the spectrum for people to run computer systems."

And those jobs aren't just on the Mainland, said Cerny. "There are jobs open in Hawai'i for computer or information technology personnel."

While this new Microsoft-inspired program provides a deeply entrenched and unique networking system for the computer/software giant well into the next generation, it also offers automatic jobs for hundreds, if not thousands, of Hawai'i young people who will be able to train in high school for technical computer certification.

That's not all. They may also get experience running a business, a computer network system, repairing computers and even building new custom-designed computers with Microsoft components.

The system is ingenious for the way it will make Microsoft indispensable to the next generation as the dominant computer force.

But it's also ingenious for the way it will provide high school students with thousands of dollars worth of training as part of their school curriculum.

"It gives students opportunities here to go right into higher-paying, high-tech jobs," said Lynedon Van Ness, a computer teacher at Leilehua High School and the new director of the school's Microsoft Information Technology Academy.

The program was launched at HCC Nov. 14; five days later Leilehua had applied to be the state's first high school academy, said Van Ness. About 24 students are enrolled in the first IT training class this semester. By the end, they'll have their first level of certification.

Since Leilehua signed up, two more have applied to be academies, including Brigham Young University-Hawai'i and Heald College. The application fee to join is $1,500, money that goes to Microsoft.

The high schools and the small colleges will be trained and assisted by the professionals at the HCC regional center.

"I'll be on the front line talking to the high schools and coordinating the classes," said HCC's Cerny. "Making sure the faculty is ready and the computer lab is ready."

Leilehua is so ready, it's over the top. Already, an enthusiastic Van Ness envisions a complete business run by the students, who will provide a wide range of services to anyone who needs help with an individual computer or a computer system.

Students could even create customized computers for customers.

"If somebody wants a computer with a certain configuration we would order the parts needed, build the computer and then cover the warranty, just like a regular business."

Of course all those software components would be Microsoft, even though the hardware could be anything, said Van Ness. Income from the student business will subsidize the cost of the program.

"The way school is set up, it would be an elective," said Van Ness. "But these students would be highly motivated because they'd wind up doing a lot of extra work beyond what the academy requires. Right now the plan is to focus on computer repair and building new computers for the public. We're also going to be focusing on consulting with small businesses in the community, using the skills and knowledge learned from the classes.

"When they get out they'll be certified the same as someone who paid for a $15,000 class (to become) a Microsoft Certified Professional."

But students may also be able to follow the curriculum over several high school years, emerging with a higher level of certification, said Van Ness. There will be increasingly more advanced classes.

Cerny points out that in this field, the certification is ultimately important. But he also notes that this training can be a stepping-stone for engineering.

"They'll get credit for one of the courses in our program if they're interested in being an electrical engineer," he said. "They'll have the knowledge and the skill and the aptitude and the interest and they'll be on their way to setting the world on fire."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.