University lecturers across the globe, including SA, are now able to access IBM courseware and skills-building software free of charge from the computing giant's Web site.
The courseware is being availed in a bid to "help [lecturers] prepare for semester IT and business courses as they expose students to in-demand IT job skills such as software development, enterprise systems management, and business process modelling", says Mark Harris, country GM and MD of IBM in South and Central Africa.
"Educational institutions today are challenged to keep abreast of the fast-changing, dynamic nature of work. This impacts both their ability to plan technology courses and deliver real-time teaching material to their students," he says.
The courseware that has been made available includes teaching business process management, teaching business process modelling, and a course mapping guide.
Harris says the material will be easily accessible within current bandwidth capabilities, but the resources are also being made available at 40 different IBM Innovation Centres, including one in Sandton, Johannesburg.
According to him, IBM already works closely with a number of universities' computer science, IT and information systems faculties in SA, and in some Sub-Saharan African countries, on different initiatives. These include curriculum-related activities, cloud computing, priority skills development, and corporate citizenship.
"The company expects these institutions, spread across the country, will be the first to exploit the free resources, but virtually all universities should be able to see the value of these resources in the greater scheme of producing graduates with market-relevant and in-demand IT skills."
Harris says IBM has established relationships with universities through its academic relations unit, and engagement in the certified courses has already started.
"By opening up resources to faculties that were previously only available to partners and independent software vendors, they [university lecturers] can now access online training on IBM technologies, allowing for enhanced education, at their own pace, in their own time."
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