LINX tackles Internet skills shortage

Citation

(2001), "LINX tackles Internet skills shortage", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 33 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2001.03733cab.006

LINX tackles Internet skills shortage

LINX tackles Internet skills shortage

Keywords: Internet, Skills shortages, Training, Engineering

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) has launched a scheme to help tackle a shortage of skilled Internet engineering staff that threatens to hamper development of e-commerce in the UK and the rest of Europe.

LINX is a non-profit-making organisation owned by more than 100 leading Internet service providers (ISPs) from the UK, USA and continental Europe. It operates facilities which connect the networks of its members and currently carry around 98 per cent of the UK's Internet traffic.

Now LINX is planning to help universities and other educational institutions design and deliver training courses which will lead to graduates being qualified as LINX Accredited Internet Engineers. It is intended that the new courses will be integrated into the syllabuses of existing Internet-related engineering courses.

Running in parallel with the new training initiative, LINX is to implement a scheme to assist students and graduates seeking work experience to be placed within member organisations.

Philip Shaw, chairman of LINX's training sub-committee, said:

Our members have identified a shortage of skilled people as one of the biggest constraints on the development of their business. This new initiative by LINX is designed to help tackle this problem.

By influencing the course content to cover more appropriate course material, LINX will be raising the overall technical competence of graduates. The LINX accredited training module will cover all the relevant required knowledge fields. It will fill in the gaps in the current education system syllabus in order to equip graduates with the exact skills which industry is looking for.

Discussions have already been held with educational establishments in the UK and Germany, and plans are at an advanced stage for some of these institutions to introduce the new training module into degrees.

Meanwhile, LINX has already begun to assist students from some of these universities to find work experience placements. Over the next few months, LINX will extend and formalise the system with an e-bulletin for its members which will link companies seeking students with students looking for placements.

Philip Shaw said: "Students and graduates placed within participating LINX member organisations will benefit from the direct Internet experience obtained on-site. Members will benefit by increasing their workforce and the education sector will potentially benefit by being awarded more grants for assisting student industrial placements".

For further information, contact LINX, 3 Park Road, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire PE1 2UX. Tel: +44 1733 705000; Fax: +44 1733 353929; E-mail: info@linx.org . Internet: www.linx.net/