Microsoft plans to offer IT training with new Elevate America program

by Steve Ragan - Feb 23 2009, 14:33

On Sunday, Microsoft announced the launch of the Elevate America initiative, which aims to offer 2 million people free technology training over the next three years. The training will offer technology literacy and skills training, as well as certification vouchers. While the initiative is a great step forward, will it help IT as a whole?

Microsoft says it will partner with state and local governments, which in turn will make resources available to their citizens. Pamela Passman, corporate vice president of Microsoft Global Corporate Affairs, announced on Sunday that Florida, New York, and Washington will be the first states to provide Elevate America to their residents.

The resources include basic technology literacy and skills training, vouchers for eLearning course collections, vouchers for certification exams, grants of cash and software to community partners so they can build in-classroom training facilities, discounted membership rates for institutions participating in the Microsoft IT Academy program, and access to a new Web portal designed for Evaluate America trainees.

In the United States, there have been record job losses over the past few months. While not the hardest hit, the IT industry has been affected. However, the largest job losses come from a mix of professional labor and skilled labor. Union workers from the auto trade, electrical trade, plumbing trade, and even construction workers, are all faced with no contracts and no work coming in. This new program should help them move into a different profession.

Yet, where will they work once trained? Unless there is an explosion in datacenters and small-to-medium office space over the next five years, not all of those who take this training will find work. There is only so much room for a Microsoft Certified Professional in a single company. Not to mention that larger companies, government incentive or not, simply will not hire a new IT worker without prior experience.

While an electrical worker in the past would have no problem working with FTTP projects, or stringing network cable inside a building, they will face a challenge with getting an IT job where they are required to support an end user. Training will only take them so far; moreover, all bets are off the first time they're placed in a situation where training doesn’t match the problem before them.

The office worker, now jobless because of cutbacks or downsizing, will find themselves in the same position. They will have the training and knowledge for the IT sector, but will have a rough time finding a stable job unless there are positions created for them. This is where having a mix of IT and business skills might help, but it is still no guarantee.

When Microsoft announced the Evaluate America plan on Sunday, it made no mention of how much it expected the initiative to cost the company. So Microsoft spending money at a time when it is asking for returns on severance pay in what they call an accounting error, and laying off employees, almost comes off as a kick in the teeth.

If the Evaluate America plan is to work, then local governments need to create jobs to match the newly trained workforce. Without that metric, the training will just amount to extra schooling that doesn’t help anyone and will cost a lot of money.

On the plus side, end-user training is always a good thing, so those who take advantage of the training and learn about computer safety and protection will benefit long after classes are done. The rest of us will benefit too, as that will mean one less person to propagate a viral infection.

The Tech Herald: Which is more important to IT - certification or experience?

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