My recent visit to the Middle East to meet CompTIA partners – and to review how IT training and certification is managed – proved to be very informative and enjoyable.
On our arrival in Bahrain we learnt that there had been riots. We were naturally a little worried, but persevered. We met up with Frank Moralis, Managing Director of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), and training partner.
Frank is enthusiastic about his work and set up several meetings for us. We met with the Royal University for Women. This was a successful appointment, leading to us agreeing to support an awareness day for the University. This event will aim to demonstrate the clear benefits of careers in IT for women.
Next up was the University of Bahrain, with over 2,500 students currently studying IT at the campus. CompTIA’s output is very much embedded into its curriculum, but both parties agreed that we need ongoing collaboration to promote exams. A challenge we’re looking forward to tackle together.
Following this meeting, it was time to meet with one of our oldest partners – the Bahrain Training Institute (BTI). We agreed on activity that will increase their CompTIA offering, ensuring we stay one step ahead of the competition. Next up, Oman…
Our first meeting was with the Ministry of Education (MoE). The Ministry has certified a lot of their internal staff and our discussions centred on the introduction of Security + and Cloud Essentials. We discussed the culture of why students are reluctant to take exams – it is the fear of failure. We hope to roll out further programs and initiatives in the future that will help address this issue. The sort of positive challenge we embrace.
Meetings with Polygot and New Horizons followed. The outcome was future support pledged to create awareness of what we do for the former, and further development work agreed for the latter. Next up, talks with our partner Khimji, who represents brands such as Proctor and Gamble and Rolex. A productive meeting led to a promise of an appointment with the Ministry of Manpower.
Our third day in Oman saw us visiting the Information Technology Authority (ITA). The role of the ITA is delivering best practice across all aspects of government IT. A very productive meeting led to a future meeting with MOE (see above) to discuss its IT educational curriculum. Our involvement with ITA will hopefully allow us to shape industry collaboration, training and certification in Oman in the future. A real positive meeting here – as well as the highlight of the trip for me.
Following ITA, we visited the Ministry of Health (MoH) with our partners Polyglot. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss our HIT certification and its benefits to MoH’s activity. The outcome: agreement to construct a certification program, starting with A+. This was a great meeting and many thanks to Polyglot for facilitating the meeting.
Our final meeting in Oman saw us visit our partner, the International Information Technology co. LLC (IITC). The organisation covers markets including telecoms, marine, petroleum and of course IT. They have a rich history and claim to have brought Microsoft to Oman! IITC also commented on the ‘fear of failure’ exam culture, so we need to work with them to develop awareness campaigns to address this issue. Again, this was a challenge, but a positive one for the future. IITC are a great partner and we look forward to a very productive relationship.
Be sure to check out my second Middle East blog, coming soon, where I visit Kuwait and Dubai, and find out that the IT industry is matching the oil industry in terms of importance and kudos.