CTU to attend The Star HRD Expo 2012

CTU will be at The Star HRD Expo in Exhibition Hall 1 from 9 to 11 October at the Sandton Convention Centre.

What is The Star HRD Expo?
Quite simply it is African’s top meeting place for Human Resource, Education and Training Professionals. The event will comprise of a 3 day exhibition as well as workshops to be run in the show floor conference room. Our 9th annual HR Africa Summit will run alongside the expo where conference delegates will lunch in the lunch area on the show floor. The exhibition is built on the success of the Human Resource Development Education E xpo that has been serving the HR market for more than 2 decades. The joint running of the expo and IIR’s HR Africa Summit will allow for further exposure to key professionals in the markets of HR, Education and Training.

To register, simply visit: www.register-online.co.za/hrde

CTU Durban CBP Training

Teacher training at Hoërskool Linden

CTU Training Solutions gave Excel and PowerPoint training at Hoërskool Linden on the 31^st of May. Each teacher had to bring their own laptop.

Thomas Rogers was the instructor/facilitator on the specific day.

We also gave the teachers the option to come to the campus to do additional training if they are interested.

Nicole Antoniadou - Success Story

In my first year of studying MCITP, I had two job offers within the first 6 months and CTU helped me get my first job as a part-time technician. I am in my 2nd year of MCITP now and I have already been offered another job, all with the help of the CTU Recruits team. I love CTU Career Campus Pretoria, as the facilitators are properly qualified, friendly, helpful and organized.

I would recommend CTU Career Campus Pretoria to any student as the CTU family will help you through your study years with care and compassion. My experience at CTU has been amazing and I will miss the fun activities we do when I leave for the working world.

Training Combos at CTU Braamfontein

Success Story - Grant Fick

Grant Fick has always enjoyed his passion of working in IT. Unfortunately he was always underpaid. He decided not to give up. He was determined to become successful and happy in his passion. He probably made the most important decision of his life:  To equip himself with the necessary knowledge to become powerful. He enrolled at CTU Bloemfontein and completed his studies in MCSE and IT systems support program.

Now, Grant Fick is part of the permanent staff of one of the leading companies in the banking sector and receives a decent salary. His determination paid off. He is now happy and successful doing the one thing he loves…IT.

He recommends everybody with a passion to equip yourself with the knowledge you need, and to do what you love to do, for this will lead you to success. And remember:

“Knowledge is power!”

IT Technical Support Learnership Progress Report

At the end of February this year, the CTU initiated IT Technical Support Learnership kicked off. It is funded by Microsoft and MICT Seta.

30 underprivileged youth were lucky enough to start their theoretical component of the programme (that is integrated and running concurrently with the other career programmes) at the Cape Town, Nelspruit and Randburg Career campuses. They have already completed their A+ and Network+ studies and were all eager to start implementing their knowledge in the workplace.

Most of these learners have started their workplace experience with companies who will be mentoring them with real “on-the-job” involvement and exposure.

They will be networking PCs, upgrading and downgrading hardware, rebuilding desktops and ghost computers, to mention but a few activities.

On Monday 23 July, 8 learnership students from the Randburg campus started their first workplace experience day at Qrent, an International IT company.

They were warmly received by Maadia Davids, the warehouse and logistics manager, who was instrumental in enabling them to become part of this wonderful opportunity and to implement their newly required theoretical knowledge in the workplace.

The IT manager, Sean McKenzie welcomed them and explained how they will be working in teams with their line managers and mentors in order to be exposed to all aspects of the operational practices. The learners were super excited and after indulging in a wonderful spread of muffins, croissants and orange juice, they were marched off to get “their hands dirty”.

The photographs are self-explanatory of how a very elegantly dressed group of students experienced their first introduction to a real workplace scenario.

CTU at ITWeb Virtualisation and Cloud Computing Summit

CTU Training Solutions attended and sponsored the ITWeb Virtualisation and Cloud Computing Summit 17-19 July 2012.

“What a phenomenal eye-opening experience”, says Jadine van der Colff (Marketing Coordinator) from CTU Training Solutions. 

We have been marketing Cloud training and certifications significantly over the past 2 years. It is amazing to hear and see how medium to large size enterprises has implemented Cloud models in their businesses and how important it was for them to have certified Cloud solutions experts to move their business to the cloud.

Do you use Facebook?  That’s cloud computing! Do you use Google. Well, that’s cloud too.  Do you get your e-mails on your phone? Yup, that’s cloud.  How about CRM or SharePoint?  These are all Cloud technologies that we are using in our day to day lives without realising it.  We need trained ICT professionals and developers to configure, maintain, develop, integrate and implement all these technologies and solutions.  It was made very clear that the need for certified individuals still remains.

“In today’s cut-throat business environment, it is essential to innovate in order to remain competitive. One such innovation is adopting cloud services in order to realise efficient service and performance. Organisations need to educate themselves about the various cloud computing solutions available, as this will allow them to gauge the benefits within the environment in which they operate.” ITWeb Virtualisation and Cloud Computing Summit Article

André de Beer, Datacentre Technical Solutions Professional from Microsoft has the following to say:

“The Virtualisation and Cloud Computing Summit hosted by ITWeb was refreshing as it moved away from the traditional cold stereotypes of cloud computing and showed the very diverse areas in the cloud where companies are getting value from.”

“Prof Pete Janse van Vuuren and Darryl Thwaits started the event perfectly by giving a conceptual overview of what the Cloud is about and more importantly what it is not. This set the scene for the other presenters to show there ‘stuff’.”

“The technical sessions that impressed me the most was the implementations at the Foschini group and Sun International. It really showed what can be achieved when business vision and IT capability meet. Being a Microsoft employee, my personal highlight in these sessions was that the companies are using Microsoft System Center very successfully to manage their Cloud and virtualisation environment.” (CTU offers Microsoft System Centre training formally known as SCCM 2010.)

“The session that intrigued me the most was the session from Tammy Bortz on protecting data in the cloud. I was expecting a technical discussion, but got a legal view which was unexpected, but very thought provoking. This is the core stuff that will make cloud work… or not work. But we tend to push it to the side lines because it does not fit in our traditional models.”

“Day 3 at the workshops really gave me the opportunity to engage with the delegates on Hyper-V in Windows 2008 R8 and the new features of Windows 2012. Delegates were really impressed with the new advances made in WS2012. The de-duplication and virtualisation technologies were the components in WS2012 that drew the most attention from the delegates.”

We at CTU look forward to meeting with the summit attendees again in the near future.

Rhynier de Klerk (CTU Corporate Marketing Director) & Jadine van der Colff (CTU Corporate Marketing Coordinator)

André de Beer (Microsoft Datacentre Technical Solutions Professional)

Understanding the language of programming

If you are considering programming as a career option, there are a couple of things you should know.

There are a couple of reasons why you should become a programmer. Programming in itself is an art. It allows you to creatively express yourself. You have the chance to create something from nothing. It can bring extreme pleasure to those practicing it by creating things that no one else has. There is also a high demand for programmers in the business industry.

There are different types of programmers, of which include:

·         System programmers, who develop scripts and code for operating systems.

·         Desktop software programmers, who develop software for use on desktops.

·         Database programmers, who develop procedures and other areas of databases.

·         Web developers, who develop websites and Web applications.

·         Mobile device programmers, who develop software and applications for mobile devices.

To be a good programmer you need to be innovative, logical, patient and persistent. Good programmers possess a couple of important attributes; they must be passionate, problem solvers and particular/thorough. They need to have a passion for programming.  Programming for them is a hobby, not a job. Another attribute is good problem-solving ability. They have creative and problem solving minds. Good programmers are also very thorough. Programmers test their coding and they program defensively.  They also have a good understanding of the complexity of algorithms.

Before you can start programming, you need to know a programming language. There are several to choose from: C#, Java, Assembly, Lisp, and the list go on and on. It is important to be at least well versed in one or more of these languages.

A career in programming demands flexibility and long hours. The career market is also highly competitive. You need distinguish yourself from the rest. Computer programming can be a career on its own, or it can be a stepping stone toward higher paying careers in computer engineering, systems analysis, or database administration.

Now that you know what programming entails, you must decide if and where you want to study, and for how long. CTU Career offers IT Systems Developer MCPD as a full time one year programme. There is also a second year option, named IT Systems Developer:Specialisation, if you want to continue your studies and be more specialised. CTU Corporate also offers part time programming programmes.

You will also need experience in programming. As they say, practice makes perfect. After your studies, you can send your CV to CTU Recruits, our recruitment division, who assists CTU graduates with job placements.

So what are you waiting for? Book your seat now: 0861 100 395.

CTU Port Elizabeth CISCO Training

Success Story - Dirk Botma

“If you nurture your mind, like you water a seed, you can grow as powerful and successful as a giant tree”

Dirk Botma took the opportunity to nurture his mind. He enrolled at CTU Bloemfontein in 2007 and completed his studies in Database Administration. He enjoyed every moment of student life. This helped transform him into a much more secure and comfortable being.  But CTU also moulded him into a successful, professional engineer.

He is now part of the permanent staff of a successful company. Their business methodology is based on a collaborative approach and their skills base ranges from notebooks, desktops and servers, LANs and WANs, back office and front office, to security, hardware and software support.

Dirk is a Senior Support Engineer. He is currently busy with the ACER EUROPE contract, as well as with the Department of Justice and many other projects. The company couldn’t be more proud of their highly successful, hardworking Support Engineer. He really has shown that “Knowledge is your key to power and success”.

CTU Randburg Focus Session Feedback

It was of a smaller scale than anticipated, but with time being against us with only 1 week to invite and confirm attendees we are delighted to have had an attendance of 8 people. We offered a light snack of wine and cheese, sandwiches and refreshments. The marketers had an opportunity to mingle with their clients and allow them the opportunity to view the campus and our offerings that were set out in our profiles.

Themba took the lead and introduced himself, as well as Lurica, Devon and myself and went on to present CTU, our value we can bring, and where we can partner with each of them in moving forward. Lurica’s gregarious nature combined with her professional etiquette was a hit with the clients. Devon, with his supportive and professional nature ensured that no one was left unattended and any question’s answers and information required was on hand.

We continued the evening by running the Cloud presentation with Brendon who was as good as his reputation that precedes him. All of the clients had positive feedback in terms of the exposure they received.

Security training at CTU Potchefstroom

CTU at Innibos 2012

INNIBOS took place from the 27th to the 31^st of June 2012. INNIBOS is a massive open air music festival with plays, music performances, comedy and many other entertainment options.

It takes place over the whole of Nelspruit; the central point and main stage is at Bergvalm High School. There is also a massive flea market with all sorts of goodies on sale; from the traditional clothing stands to jewelry, food, farming implements, cars, dogs, you name it! Over 100 000 people wandered through the doors to partake in the fun and festivities.

CTU Training Solutions partnered with Coca Cola in the FANTA FUN ZONE, where we set up a LAN. The event was a huge success with loads of exposure for us. The name of the game was LESS SERIOUS MORE FUN!!

The LAN games played were Counter Strike 2012, Defense of the Ancients, Call of Duty.

The LAN Station was always busy and we gave out a large number of flyers. Fresh Impact performed every evening to massive crowds.

Our students also worked hard:

• Our IT students set up and managed the LAN.
• Our Graphic students designed the official flyers and posters for the FANTA Fun Zone.
• Our Project Management student ran the project from start to finish.

The project as a whole was a lot of fun and a great success.

Bloem CAD fieldrip to Cube Architects

On Tuesday, 10 July, CTU Bloemfontein's CAD 1^st Year students went to Cube Architects for a Fieldtrip.

Auckland Park Focus Session Photos

Graphic and Web Focus Session at CTU Roodepoort

CTU Randburg Cloud Computing Focus Session

CTU Cape Town Training for July

CTU Boksburg IT Networking Focus Session

CTU Bloemfontein and the Can Can Project

BFN Campus took part in the CAN CAN projects in association with the Free State Dept. of Justice and the Windmill Casino.

Two of our students who are currently on campus, with some of the canned food we collected.