HP offers systems training in Sydney

Worldwide vice president for HP Education Services, Brian Brouillette, said the Sydney training centre is an extension of operations in Melbourne and Auckland. HP will offer a comprehensive portfolio for training IT professionals, administrators or programmers interested in venturing into other areas in the industry.

An example of this is HP's .Net comprehensive training as preparation for .Net exam credentials. Brouillette says customers can have the choice of either joining the ten day .Net boot camp for AU$6,000 or do the 10 week virtual classroom online.

"We found that 70 percent of the customers prefer the online classroom because most IT professionals have a hard time leaving work for ten days. It is also more flexible with just two hours a day and three days a week for ten weeks," Brouillette said.

The HP virtual laboratory gives more access to lab time and offers online mentoring for customers just like in a normal classroom.

"We are making an investment here to help develop IT professionals who happen to be customers of HP. The package contents are designed so that it can be best consumed by the customers," Brouillette added.

Brouillette also emphasised that apart from HP customers, they also have internal training on software and services for their 500 staff and employees each year.

With the goal of becoming the hub in Asia Pacific, HP is willing to customise the curriculum schedule and training courses for larger groups to suit the clients' working hours.

"We try to target high end value with deeper and more comprehensive instructional design for systems like Linux, Microsoft and ITSM. The cost is lower but without sacrificing educational quality. Our aim here is to blend classrooms with virtual learning, from the most elementary to the most advanced of systems," Brouillette said.