There is a clear need for ICT professionals to supplement their academic education through continuing professional development that focuses on a selection of current and emerging software technologies and tools.
The demand for experts in cutting-edge software technologies is driven by the ICT industry and local companies sporadically complain having to train fresh university graduates in specific technologies that are used within their organisation.
Although the primary function of academic institutions is to impart conceptual knowledge rather than overly-specific technical training, such organisations can also fulfil an important parallel role as providers of high-quality technical education driven by the immediate needs of the ICT industry. Most crucially, this must be achieved without adversely impacting the academic content of the existing degree programmes.
It goes without saying that the haphazard introduction of technical training, at the University of Malta, by displacing courses that impart a high-level understanding of concepts is not the way forward. Rather, we believe in providing a separate means of access to continuing professional development courses to support and supplement students’ and graduates’ academic knowledge.
The recent introduction of the Programme in Liberal Arts and Sciences (PLAS) at the University of Malta represents an opportunity to meet such industry demands with a degree of agility and flexibility. This programme offers the possibility to accumulate ECTS credits to achieve awards in liberal studies without the impositions of time limits.
As of this coming academic year, the programme is being augmented with a selection of technically-oriented, hands-on units that focus on current and emerging software technologies and tools.
The choice of topics has been determined by the University in conjunction with industrial stakeholders, with the tutors all being experienced practitioners recruited from the industry.
These units will serve as a practical counterpart to the University’s theoretical and concept-oriented academic degree programmes and provide an opportunity for local ICT companies to participate in the training of ICT students, professionals or even members of the public for proficiency in their preferred choice of technologies.
The demand for experts in cutting-edge software technologies is driven by the ICT industry
Applications are open for the first set of PLAS tech units starting this October. They are aimed at: (1) practitioners who want to learn about cutting-edge technologies, (2) IT companies seeking opportunities to train their employees in the use of new technologies, (3) students who wish to supplement their academic knowledge with hands-on training and (4) members of the public with a technical background who want to learn specialised technologies.
An interesting collection of courses is available, covering a range of topics including data science, enterprise architecture, modern Java development, test automation, continuous integration, iOS development, single page app development and in-memory data management.
We plan to consult with industrial stakeholders on a regular basis to ensure that the technical direction adopted by PLAS tech units continues to be of value to the local ICT industry in the future.
More information on the PLAS tech units is available on www.um.edu.mt/clas/tech.
Gordon Pace is head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Malta and Kevin Vella is senior lecturer in the same department.